


Falling to Pieces

by rarmaster



Series: FtPverse [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Reference Past Abuse, Parallel Universe, Roleswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-21
Updated: 2010-11-21
Packaged: 2018-10-31 11:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 39,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10898487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: Sora’s jealousy of Riku is pushing him to turn to the darkness. But, if he succumbs to it, who will save the worlds from Ansem?





	1. Awakening

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately…"

He fell slowly.

Slowly.

He opened his eyes. Where was he? Nothing but blackness surrounded him.

"Like, is any of this for real… or not?"

He kept falling, falling.

Then, he blinked, and found himself sitting on the paopu tree next to Riku and Kairi. He looked at them, Kairi smiled. Riku did nothing. A torn piece of paper was blown by on the wind. He reached out and grabbed it, and looked at it.

On the piece of paper was a drawing of them, on the paopu tree, and a wave was rearing up to fall on the island.

The sound of rushing water. He looked up from the paper, and saw that there WAS a wave coming to crash into the island. He had no time to react, the wave suddenly fell. He was knocked back, off the tree by the force of the water. He reached out, trying to grab on to something, ANYTHING.

It stopped. He stood, finding himself in knee-high water. He turned, and found the islands behind him. And standing on the shore was Riku. He held a wooden sword in one hand, casually. He slowly held out his other hand.

'Come with me…'

He ran for the shore.

Darkness.

It made him stop, mid-step.

He couldn't see. Nothing was there. It was cold.

The darkness faded, and suddenly he wasn't running for the shore anymore. He stood on the edge of the smaller island that had the paopu tree on it. The water was behind him. Kairi was running towards him.

His foot slipped and he stumbled back, ready to fall of the edge.

A flash of darkness.

He was falling.

Kairi was shouting for him.

Another flash.

He was still falling. Kairi had her hand out, trying to reach for him. He reached up for her, but he was falling to quick. He fell into the water, and kept falling. He should have hit the ground, but didn't. He continued to fall.

But then, it did stop. He was standing on something, that was for sure. He took a step forward, and the ground beneath him erupted into a flock of birds. He shielded his eyes from the sudden light, and then looked around.

He was standing on a stained-glass platform.

"So much to do." a voice said from nowhere. He looked around, trying to locate its source. It seemed to come from blackness that surrounded him. "So little time… Take your time. The Door is still shut. Step forward. Can you do it?"

Slowly he took a few steps forward into a ray of light that fell on the platform. Suddenly, three stone platforms rose. A shield appeared above one, a sword appeared above another, and a staff appeared over the last.

"Power sleeps within you. If you give it form… it will give you strength. Choose well."

He looked between each platform, thinking. He climbed up to the platform with the sword and picked it up out of the air. The voice spoke:

"The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction." The voice paused, and he looked down at the sword thoughtfully. "Is this the power you seek?"

"Yes," he replied.

If the voice had a body, it probably would have nodded. "Your path is set." The sword disappeared from his hand. "Now what will you give up in exchange?"

He turned, looking at the staff and the shield. He headed over to the shield and picked it up. The voice spoke again.

"The power of the guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. You give up this power?"

He looked at the shield and thought for a second. "No," he said, before turning and heading over to the platform with the staff. He picked it up.

"The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. You give up this power?"

He didn't look down at the staff. He looked up this time, thinking, comparing. As cool as the staff sounded, he needed to protect his friends more.

"Yes," he replied.

"You've chosen the power of the warrior." The voice almost spoke with disapproval. "You've given up the power of the mystic. Is this the form you choose?"

He said yes before he could change his mind. There was no going back now.

A flash of darkness.

It lasted longer than any of the others.

Then it was gone.

He stood on a different stained glass platform now.

"You have gained the power to fight," the voice said, and the sword appeared in his hand. He swung it, testing it out.

"All right!" the voice congratulated. "You've got it. Use this power to protect yourself and others."

A small black creature with glowing yellow eyes appeared. He had seen them before. What was it called? A Heartless?

"There will be times when you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."

He stabbed his sword at it, then hit it over the head, and then swung. It disappeared. He swung at another, and mid-swing his sword's form flickered. Only for a second did it last though, and he was holding the sword again. He attacked another, and this time the sword's form did change. He was no longer holding the sword. He was holding a key-shaped blade.

He had also seen this before. What was it called?

"Keyblade…" a rush of voices whispered, like the wind.

"Behind you!" the voice shouted, and he turned and swung at a Heartless that was behind him. He grinned, and then darkness appeared below him, and he fell. He tried to swat it away, and then it was gone. He was laying on a different stained glass platform.

A door appeared. Curious, he walked over to it and pulled it open. He blinked at the bright light that was coming out from it and then stepped through.

He was on the Islands again. Waiting there were some of his friends. Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka. They weren't extremely close friends, but they were friends nevertheless.

"Hold on. The Door won't open just yet," the voice said. "First, tell me more about yourself."

He walked slowly over to Selphie. "What's most important to you?" she asked.

He took a second to think about it. His mind flickered over the events of these past months, ever since Riku had arrived. "Being number one…" he replied slowly. The days where he ever beat Riku at something were rare.

"Is being number one such a big deal?"

He turned, and walked over to Tidus. "What are you afraid of?" he asked.

He thought about it. Again, his mind flickered over the events of the past few months. "Being indecisive," he said, thinking of all the times he had stood there with danger around him, trying to decide.

Tidus almost laughed. "Being indecisive? Is that really so scary?"

He shrugged, and waked over to Wakka. "What do you want out of life?" he asked.

Yet again, his mind flickered back over the events of the past months. Riku came to mind again. Riku and how he was so good at fighting. Riku and how he seemed to know so much. "To broaden my horizons," he said. He wanted to be better.

"To broaden your horizons, huh?"

The voice spoke: "You want to be number one. You're afraid of being indecisive. You want to broaden your horizons. Your adventure begins at dawn. As long as the sun is shining, your journey should be a pleasant one."

"Sounds good," he said. But he couldn't help but wonder: what would happen when the sun WASN'T shining?

"The day you will open the Door is both far off and—" the voice stopped suddenly. There was a flash of darkness. He was standing on another stained-glass platform.

Heartless appeared. He attacked. Stab, hit, swing. A familiar pattern. One combo of that would take down one Heartless. He defeated them all in no time. A walkway appeared, winding up away from the platform. He ran up it and found himself on another stained-glass platform.

"The closer to light you get, the greater your shadow becomes…" the voice said.

He turned. His shadow stretched out. Then it pulled itself up from the ground, taking form. It was his shadow for a split second, before it reared up into a massive Heartless. His first instinct was to run, but he fought it and summoned his Keyblade.

"I'm not afraid!" he declared, and the Heartless punched its giant fist into the ground next to him. A crack slowly spread out across the platform, and then the entire thing shattered. He started to fall again. Started falling into the darkness.

"Don't worry!" the voice called. It sounded shaky, he could only catch pieces of what it was saying. "You hold the mightiest weapon of all."

He looked at the Keyblade in his hand.

"And don't forget: You are the one…"

He had fallen too far by now. Only a whisper of the voice was left, and he couldn't make out what it was saying. The darkness around him grew cold. Shadows snatched out, trying to rip the Keyblade from his hand. But he held on.

He would hold on to his Keyblade if it was the last thing he would do.


	2. Hopes and Dreams

_His memory was warped. Again, he was in a room with the Organization, and they were discussing what to do with him. It wasn't the first time this had happened. But things were different this time. There was almost a lighter feel to the air._

_His mind was taking in every detail. Everything seemed to be the same. Or, roughly the same. Namine now sat at a table, and was drawing there. Also, for some reason, Vexen was several inches shorter._

_He had no control of what his body did. His mouth spoke without him wanting it to. "Old hag." He just called Larxene an old hag. What was wrong with him?_

_Larxene grinned. "Cheeky, how interesting" she muttered._

_Just then, Larxene grabbed him from behind. "Ow! Let go!" he screamed as she pinched his ear. "What is this!" he shouted, as she dragged him across the room. "Where are you taking me!"_

_"Don't treat him so rough!" Vexen yelled. "I've just completed him. His training—"_

_"You should have at least taught him to listen to others!" Larxene said, cutting him off. "If we're going to use Riku to test Sora's strength…"_

_Everything was a blur. Next thing he knew, he was laying on Namine's table and he ached. Namine was freaking out, and crayons had been scattered everywhere. Larxene had just thrown him across the room._

_"Don't we have to remake his heart into the real thing?" Larxene asked as she walked over._

_"What are you planning!" he asked, turning to glare at her._

_"We'll plant a wonderful memory into that hollow heart of yours!"_

_Shock. His eyes went wide._

_"What!" he asked, scared to death._

He opened his eyes in shock, and was relieved to find himself in his own bed, in his own room, on Destiny Islands, a universe and months away from that event, even if it had been warped in his nightmare.

The nightmares had been coming off and on, getting worse as time wore on. They had been happening ever since he had returned from Castle Oblivion. They were caused by grief. Grief that had been plaguing him ever since his first conversation with Namine. She had asked him why she couldn't remember. He had told her he didn't know.

But he did know. It was because she was a replica. A replica created without any memories. But he hadn't told her. He hadn't dared. If he had told her she was a replica, she would have freaked.

And he couldn't tell her now. Not only would she freak about the fact she was a replica, she would have been furious at him for not telling her.

 _How would I have felt, if Sora knew the answer to why I couldn't remember, and hadn't told me?_  He would ask himself countless times. The answer was always the same. He would have hated Sora.

Besides that one little fact, things had been going great ever since they had returned. Namine had been able to make herself comfortable on the islands. She had quickly become friends with Sora and Kairi, just as he had, and seemed to cope with him just fine. She didn't find him annoying at all.

Riku cast a glance out the window. The sun hung inches over the horizon only by a few inches. It was just past dawn.

Deciding it wasn't worth it to try and go back to sleep, Riku got up and headed over to the smaller island.

**xxx**

Sora had headed down to the smaller island earlier, at dawn, after waking up from his own dream. He sat on the pier, and was looking at his empty hands. The last thing he could remember from his dream was holding on to his Keyblade like it was a lifeline, and then he had found himself in his own bed, hands empty. He had attempted many times to summon it again, but hadn't managed.

"Maybe it was all just a dream…" he muttered. But it had felt so real.

"Hey Sora!" the voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and he turned and found Riku. Anger rose up in him for a split second before it disappeared. "You're down here early," Riku said, jumping onto the pier.

"So are you," he replied, now curious over the anger that had risen in him. He wasn't mad at Riku, was he? He didn't think he was. He didn't have much reason to. Or did he? The thoughts were pulled away as Riku sat down on the pier next to him.

"I'm always down here early" Riku said.

Sora didn't reply, still mulling things over. After a few seconds of silence he asked: "You've been to other worlds, haven't you Riku?"

"Castle Oblivion," Riku said simply, "and that worlds no bundle of laughs. I've never been anywhere else."

"But there are other worlds out there, aren't there?"

Riku nodded.

"Do you think we could go see them?"

"Maybe," Riku said. "How do you suggest we go to see them though?"

Sora took a second to think about this. "We could build a raft."

Riku laughed. "A raft?" he asked, almost in disbelief. Sora shrugged.

"Couldn't a raft get us off the islands?"

Riku looked out to sea, and thought about this himself. "It might work..."

"You think?"

"We'll never know until we try, right?"

Sora grinned and hopped to his feet. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go build a raft!"

And thus the building of the raft began. Sora was eager to get off the Islands and see what was out there. Riku was hoping to find out whether or not the worlds out there were more exciting than Castle Oblivion.

Kairi, when she arrived on the smaller island later, agreed that she wanted to see what was out there also, and quickly took charge of the operation. She ordered the boys around, telling them what supplies they needed to get to build the raft. Riku did most of the building, and Sora did quite a lot of the gathering. Namine, meanwhile, claimed she was perfectly happy with whatever the group decided to do, whether it was to stay or to go, and sat off to the side drawing.

"Hey Sora," Riku called over his shoulder as he finished tying a few logs together. "Grab your sword, let's go a quick round."

Sora tossed the log he was carrying on the ground. He paused a second, thinking. He picked up his sword and started to say yes. He stopped. Memories of his dream were still fresh in his mind. For a second, it felt as if he was holding the Keyblade. But he wasn't. He looked over at Riku, who was finishing up the knot. Was it worth it? He was going to lose. He always lost.

" _You have gained the power to fight…"_

The voice echoed in his mind.

Maybe this time would be different.

"You're on!" he declared.

Riku grabbed his own sword and stood up. Sora charged. Stab. Hit. Swing. A familiar pattern. A rhythm that he fell into quickly. He repeated a few times before Riku managed to block it, and he blocked the next three hits.

"My turn!" Riku called, swinging his sword, hitting Sora in the stomach and knocking him back. Not far, of course, they were only using wooden swords. Riku attacked a few times, doing some damage, but then Sora managed to block an attack.

Stab. Hit. Swing.

A combo.

This time, he knocked Riku back. Riku sprung to his feet, nearly hitting Sora as he did so. Sora jumped back, and attempted to pull another combo.

"Don't think I'm letting you win," Riku said, as he blocked a blow.

"I'm not," Sora replied. Riku grunted and back-flipped out of the way. Sora scowled, and couldn't help but think to himself:  _what a show off._

The battle continued on in a similar fashion. Sora managed to pull a lot of combos, compared to Riku's few. But Riku's combos hurt. And they hurt like heck.

"I win," Riku declared when Sora fell and didn't get back up. He grunted, sick of losing again. He thought maybe he could win this time. Maybe things would be different.

"GAAAH!" he screamed. His body moved without him really telling it too. His hand closed around the hilt of his sword and he leapt forward, slashing down. It made contact with Riku's shoulder.

Riku gasped and stumbled back in pain. His hand flew to his shoulder and he clutched his hand over the wound. He fell to his knees. Sora paused, staring in shock. What had he just done? His heart was pounding. He dropped his sword and stammered something.

Riku paid no attention. He pulled his hand away from the wound and looked.

There was blood.


	3. Panic!

Riku stared in shock. Had Sora just…?

"Sora!" he shouted, looking up at him in shock and disbelief, traces of fear on his face. What had just happened? He couldn't say anything more. He wasn't sure what to say.

Sora was speechless also.

Namine, who had been sort of watching the fight, but focusing more on her drawing, looked up now. She studied the scene with interest, wondering what was going on. And then she saw the blood. The pencil nearly fell out of her hand as she put down her sketch book and ran over.

"Riku, are you alright?" Namine asked. Riku nodded, but his gaze remained on Sora.

"I-I" Sora stammered. "I'm sorry. I-"

"Riku!" Kairi called, "have you finished with the—" she stopped. Her eyes glanced over the scene before her. Namine at Riku's side. Riku bleeding. Sora standing there in shock. All eyes were on Sora, and Sora was freaking out.

"What… happened?" Kairi asked slowly.

"Yeah," Riku said, looking from his wound to Sora. "What happened?"

Sora turned from Riku to Kairi, looking horrified. "I-I don't know," he stuttered. "Riku beat me, a-and I was kind of frustrated." He stopped, breathing hard. "I-I just… I didn't mean for-" he seemed frantic now, unable to get out the words he wanted to get out. "I didn't even mean to hit him!" Sora shouted. "One second I was sitting here, Riku declaring he won, and then I reached for my sword and-" his expression grew sick. "I-I… It was all sort of a blur, and-and then Riku was sitting here in pain!"

All eyes were on Sora. He was frantically looking around, hoping to find something but shock on one of their faces. Riku seemed almost angry, and a bit preoccupied, as if trying to hold something down. Namine was silent and confused about the situation, which wasn't unusual. Kairi was staring at Sora with… fear.

Sora dropped to his knees and reached out to Riku.

"Riku, I-"

Riku jumped back, hand flying to cover his wound again. Sora stared in shock.

Riku looked at Sora, anger rising in him. The pain building up in his arm was making it harder to resist the urge to strike back. It would be so easy to pull out his blade, or shoot Dark Firaga, or…

 _No,_ he told himself, _Sora's not my enemy. It was just an accident._

He couldn't really convince himself that though. There was something about the way all this had happened. It didn't seem like Sora hadn't planned this. It seemed like Sora had really meant to hurt him. But the way Sora was freaking out now…

Riku turned to Kairi, who stood away from the scene, shaking. Her eyes were on Sora, and she was growing paler by the second. Even if she hadn't seen it happen, just the thought of it was freaking her out. Sora, I-can't-harm-a-fly-Sora, had just wounded Riku. Riku turned to Namine and nodded in Kairi's direction. Namine looked, and then noticed what was wrong.

"Hey, Kairi," Namine said. "We should get Riku bandaged up."

Kairi turned, stared at Namine and Riku for a second, and then nodded.

Riku let the girls drag him off to bandage a wound that probably didn't need much bandaging. It didn't matter. Hopefully, this would calm Kairi down.

"Wait!" Sora called. "Guys! You gotta believe me!"

Only Namine turned back. She flashed him a small smile. "Sorry, Sora," she replied.

Sora watched them go, and shuddered.

He was alone.

It was cold.

**xxx**

Riku paid almost no attention as Kairi bandaged his wound. Something wasn't right with Sora, and it was a scary thought. What in the worlds had made him do that? He usually took losing rather well.

"Riku, what happened back there?" Kairi asked quietly, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Riku turned to her. "Same as Sora said," he said with a shrug. "We fought, I won, and," he paused, thinking. It really had been a blur. "Sora sort of screamed in frustration, which wasn't unusual at all, and then- he struck."

"That all?" she pressed. He merely nodded.

Kairi nodded too, but her hands were shaking and she was unable to tie the bandage properly. Namine must have noticed, for she took over the job.

"You alright, Kairi?" Namine asked.

She nodded again. "Just a bit freaked, I guess," she replied. "I've known Sora my entire life and  _never_  has he done anything like this. He's never been able to hurt anyone." Riku noticed tears running down her face, which she quickly tried to wipe away. "It scares me to see him so scared…" her voice got quiet as she said this, almost as if she was admitting this for the first time.

Silence passed.

Namine was the first to speak up. "Maybe you should go talk to him," she told Kairi.

Kairi seemed taken aback. "But what if-"

"He's not going to hurt you," Riku said, a bit impatiently. "Something would have to be seriously wrong with him to even  _consider_  that."

"He's scared too," Namine added. "Maybe you can help him."

Kairi nodded slowly, then rose to her feet and headed off to find Sora.

"What was that about?" Riku asked, watching Kairi's retreated form.

Namine turned to look at him, a bit surprised. It took her a second to realize what he was talking about. She shrugged. "I'm not quite sure…" she said slowly. "It just felt… like the right thing to do."

"Hmm…" Riku muttered, thinking about it. There was something a bit off with that statement. Namine had finished bandaging his wound by now, and sat down next to him.

"How are you dealing?" he asked.

"Fine," she replied, looking out to the horizon. "It seems strange, but-" she paused, tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear. "This is all familiar. The two of you fighting and all. I know I should be shocked, or something, but-" she frowned, thinking hard. Riku couldn't help but smile. She was so adorable when she was thinking hard.

"It's almost as if I expected this to happen. Or something like this to happen…" she trailed off, eyes growing distant. "I'm not surprised at all." She tore her gaze away from the horizon and turned to look at Riku.

"What about you?" she asked

"What about me?" he replied

"How are you dealing?" she clarified.

"Fine," he said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You scared me a bit back there," Namine said. "For a second, it looked like you were about to kill Sora."

"After I realized what had happened, that was my first instinct. To strike back."

"I'm glad you didn't."

"Me too."

They sat in silence, listening to the sound of the waves. Namine closed her eyes, and smiled. She sighed after a moment.

"I wish the world could just be  _this_ ," she said. "No worries, no problems, no troubles. Nothing to do but sit here and listen to the waves."

"That sounds a bit boring," Riku laughed.

"Yeah," she admitted. "But peaceful."

"Peaceful, yeah," he agreed.


	4. Strange Whispers

_It was peaceful. Just him, and Namine, sitting on the shore. No sound but the sound of the waves, everything else was silent. It was night, the moon shining brightly down on them. She shivered. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, shielding her from the night wind._

_A golden moment. Silence. Him and his beloved._

" _What else could I possibly ask for?" he wondered._

_Lightning flashed._

_Thunder rolled._

_Clouds formed in the distance._

_The moment was shattered. The peace was over. The silence was gone._

_Cold rain drops fell hard. The waves crashed against the shore, no longer a peaceful sea, but a raging ocean. A tidal wave rose and fell right over their heads. The water rushed around them, separating them._

_He was drowning._

_Not only in the water, but in the memories that were forcing their way to the surface. Flashes of laughing Organization members and taunting Real Things and shouting Soras._

_Flash, scream, hit._

_He stumbled back, blood pouring from his wound. Sora stood above him, cackling. He held a Keyblade in his hand, but one unlike Riku had ever seen before. There was an odd look in Sora's eyes, one that made Riku sick. Pain overtook him—_

Riku shot awake, breath coming in gasps, and found himself where he usually did. In his own room. He wiped his eyes, not sure why he had been crying, and he groaned. Another nightmare, just like every night before.

It was nearly dawn, as usual. Another sleepless night had passed.

**xxx**

Sora hadn't slept well either. He was still in shock from the events that took place the day before. He sat on the shore, turning his sword over in his hands. Earlier that morning, he could have sworn it had been a Keyblade. But it wasn't.

He ran his hand over the bloodstain. Riku's blood. He had tried over and over again to wash the blood off, but it had done nothing.

 _I need a new sword_ , Sora thought. He couldn't walk around with this old thing, not with the blood stained on it. It would just be too weird.

There were footsteps behind him. Quickly, he hid his sword, hid his shame. It was Riku.

"How early ARE you coming down here, Sora?" Riku asked. Sora quickly hopped to his feet.

"Does it matter?" Sora snapped coldly, then gasped. He hadn't meant to say that.

"I suppose not," Riku said, ignoring how Sora had asked that question.

"Listen, Riku," Sora said. "Sorry about yesterday. I honestly didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's fine," Riku replied. "I was just overeating a bit. Did Kairi talk to you yesterday?"

Sora nodded.

"Did she seem alright?"

"Yeah. A bit freaked, but we all were, right?" Sora paused, thinking back on the conversation they had last night. Kairi had been a bit out of it, quieter than usual, and… scared. He decided to tell Riku about this. "She was quiet though. We didn't actually talk much. She-" he stopped, deciding to keep that part of the conversation private. "Do you know if she's okay?" he asked instead, turning to look at Riku.

Riku's expression was like stone.

"I think so," he replied slowly. "She seemed to take this harder than the rest of us though… You okay?"

Sora nodded. "We should get a head start on the raft, you know? Maybe getting some work on it done will help Kairi out."

Riku turned away. "About that…" he said slowly

"What?"

"We decided to put that off until things cleared up…"

Sora stared at Riku for a second. "When was this decided?"

"Yesterday," Riku replied rather quickly. "Namine and I talked about it, and she asked Kairi, and Kairi agreed, and I was supposed to tell you, and I figured I'd do that today. Just now."

"So you waited to tell me…"

"Are you okay with that?"

Sora nodded after a moment. "Yeah, sure," he said, swallowing down what he had originally wanted to say.

"Sorry, I know you wanted to see other worlds and all," Riku began, but Sora interrupted.

"No! It's fine!"

Riku sighed. "We're doing this to help Kairi, you know that right?"

"Of course," Sora nodded. "That's perfectly okay."

Riku started to say more, but then stopped. It probably wasn't worth it. "I'm gonna go then…" he said after a moment, and walked off.

Sora flopped back down onto the sand. He laughed for some reason. Riku was always taking the spotlight ever since he had arrived. He was the best fighter, best runner, and now he was making choices for everyone.

 _What is wrong with me?_  Sora thought.  _I'm just making myself mad at Riku…_

He sighed, and thought back to the conversation he and Kairi had yesterday.

_He had been sitting there, slightly depressed, and shocked, and confused. She had sat down next to him, and it took him a second to notice because he was so occupied with his thoughts. She had laughed at this, but it only lasted a second._

" _You okay?" she had asked. He nodded._

" _Scared?" she asked._

" _I don't know what happened," Sora whispered. "I really don't, and that- that's what scares me the most. I can't remember what happened. I was just sitting there, defeated, and then I was standing over Riku as if I was the victor. But-" his thoughts faded into silence. They just sat there, not saying a word._

" _Are you scared?" he asked, quite a while later._

" _Yes," she replied simply, but said nothing more._

_And they sat there in silence, until later deciding it was time to head home._

"This world has been connected…" a mysterious voice said, pulling him out of his thoughts. He turned, shocked, and found a cloaked figure standing behind him. The figure's face was hidden by a hood, and under the hood seemed to be nothing but darkness.

"Wha- who are you?" Sora asked

"Tied to the darkness," the figure continued, taking no notice of what Sora had said.

"What are talking about?"

"Soon to be completely eclipsed."

Sora had stood up by now and stared at the figure in confusion.

"You do not yet know what lies behind the door…" the figure said.

"What door?" Sora asked.

The figure chuckled. "There is so very much to learn, and you understand so little!"

Sora scowled. "I'll show you! I'm going to get out and learn what's out there!"

"A meaningless effort," the figure replied. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing. But-" the figure paused. "You want to learn?"

"Y-yeah," Sora replied.

"How do you expect to learn when you can't even leave?"

"I've got the raft!"

"But how far can a raft take you?" the figure asked, clearly amused. "Besides, your friends abandoned that, abandoned you!"

"Hey!" Sora said angrily. "They didn't abandon me." He paused and rethought that. "Or… did they?"

"…find the door to this world…" the figure whispered.

"Wha-?" Sora said.

"Sora!" He turned, and saw Kairi heading towards him. He looked back to the figure-

The robed figure was gone.


	5. Night of Fate

Later that day, in the sunset, the group was found by the Paopu tree, as always. And as always, Sora and Kairi sat on the tree, while Riku leaned against it. Namine sat on the ground next to Riku, drawing. Sora was staring off into space, too preoccupied with something else. Kairi stared out at the ocean. Riku had his eyes fixed on something on the horizon, something that bothered him. Namine was (as previously mentioned) drawing, and thus staring at the piece of paper with deep concentration.

"Do you guys think-" Kairi began, but paused for a second. "Do you think we've grown apart, lately?" she asked. Riku turned to look at her.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked slowly.

“I… I don’t know,” Kairi sighed. “It’s just… So much is changing. I don’t like it.”

Riku glanced past her at Sora, who he knew she was mainly referring too. He didn't even seem to notice she had spoken. "Well… what do you expect _me_ to do about it?"

She laughed, leaning towards him, teasing: “Well, maybe if you’d stop holding a grudge against Sora!”

“Wh- I don’t hold grudges!” Riku protested.

Kairi snorted. Namine giggled, though she quickly covered it with her hand.

Both Riku and Kairi turned to look at her, but she continued drawing as if she had done nothing.

"Well, not anymore…" Riku grumbled.

"Hmm." Kairi hummed thoughtfully.

Namine continued to smile behind her notebook, unseen by everyone else. She wasn't sure why she had even laughed in the first place. But when Riku had said that he didn't hold grudges, she had found it funny. She didn't know why. She had only known Riku for a few months, how in the worlds could she have known different? She blinked and rubbed her eyes, tired of staring at the picture for so long. She had nearly finished it anyway. She turned to look at Riku, who was talking with Kairi. She looked past them at Sora, who was seemed to be lost in thought.

"Is he okay?" she asked. Riku turned to look at her, and she nodded towards Sora.

"Ask if he's okay," Riku said to Kairi. She turned to Sora.

"You alright?" she asked

Sora jumped, startled. "Yeah, fine," he said quite quickly. They all stared at him, not believing him. "Don't look at me like that! I'm fine!" he turned away.

Kairi turned to Riku, who shrugged.

The sun had gone almost completely down by now. "We should head back home," Kairi said after a moment. They all agreed and got up, heading back towards the dock. Sora started lagging behind.

"You coming Sora?" Riku called over his shoulder, after Sora had stopped completely.

Sora, who was staring at one particular spot, six words echoing in his mind, didn't respond for a moment. Then, without turning, he called back: "Yeah, in a second."

Riku continued on, only to be stopped again when Namine tugged on his shirt.

"Riku, I want you to look at this," she said, handing him her sketchbook. He looked at the picture it was open to and paused. It was hard to see in the last dim light of the sun and the moonlight.

They were all in what seemed to be Riku's secret place. On the far side there was a door, which was thrown wide open, and a strong wind seemed to be rushing out. Sora stood in the middle of that wind, almost as if refusing to move. He held a Keyblade in one hand, and was using his free hand to block his face.

Riku ran his finger over the Keyblade, curious. But that wasn't the most curious part. Off to one side, either asleep or unconscious, lay Kairi. And on the other side, was Riku, standing protectively in front of Namine and reaching out towards Sora.

"What is this?" he asked.

"I've been drawing pictures like this for a while now…" Namine replied. "I don't know why, but I can't help thinking that they all mean something."

Riku shrugged, handing the notebook back to her. "Mean what?"

"I don't know. But keep it in mind. It might be important." The look on her face was serious, and she really seemed quite sure about this. He nodded.

"I will."

They continued walking, not even noticing that Sora had disappeared. They were all in their boats, about to leave, when there was a loud noise, and the islands shook. Clouds filled the sky, appearing from nowhere.

Riku jumped out of his boat and onto the dock, taking off at a dead run.

The islands almost seemed to crumble beneath his feet.

"Sora!" he shouted, trying to locate him.

He found Sora rather quickly, for Sora seemed to be at the center of the destruction.

"What are you doing!" Riku shouted "Get out of there!"

"The door has opened!" Sora replied, voice almost giddy with excitement.

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked. "Can't you see what's happening?"

"Yes! I can! We can finally get to the outside world, Riku!"

"But the islands are falling apart!" Riku said "You'd leave your home in ruins for THIS!"

Sora laughed. "Riku, this may be our only chance. We have to take it! Once we step through, we may never be able to come back, but we can't let fear stop us." He stared up at the growing storm. "I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

Sora turned to Riku, a very odd look in his eyes. "Come with me Riku," he said, voice quieter than before. Darkness started to seep up from the cracks beneath his feet, snaking its way up his legs.

"I'm not leaving without Namine," Riku declared.

Sora's eyes formed a glare. "It's always her first, isn't it?" he asked quietly, voice cold and angry. The darkness slowly wrapped around him completely.

"Sora!" Riku gasped, but it was too late. His friend had been engulfed in the darkness.

There was silence for a second, only the sound of the wind remained. The wind was blowing hard, stripping chunks of the island away and sending them flying through the sky. Pieces of wood and tree leaves also were blown past. There were cracks in the ground everywhere, and the ocean seemed to have disappeared, as had the island with the paopu tree.

"What's happened?" Kairi shouted, running up, Namine at her heals. "Where's Sora?"

"Gone." Riku replied. "He's gone. We've lost him."

"Where'd he go?" Kairi asked frantically.

Riku shook his head.

"Riku!" Namine gasped, pointing. Riku turned, blade already in his hand, and quickly attacked the Heartless that stood behind him. The Heartless disappeared in a puff of black smoke, but others soon started appearing.

"Get out of here, quick!" Riku called over his shoulder.

The girls took two steps back, and then stopped.

"Go where?" Kairi asked quietly. Riku paused, thinking about that, but was quickly distracted by another Heartless. He turned to look at her after a moment. He was still ready to attack, his body poised to fight, but his eyes showed something different. He knew there was no point in fighting. They had nowhere to run.

He turned away, Heartless again grabbing his attention.

Kairi backed up a few paces, slowly making her way to the edge of the island unknowingly. The island was slowly shrinking too, due to the intense wind that was constantly tearing it apart. The ground suddenly gave way beneath her feet, and she stumbled back, a large chunk of island falling beneath her. She screamed.

"Kairi!" Namine called, reaching out. It was too late. Kairi was gone.

Riku had turned a second later, and now saw Namine standing there, staring in shock. She backed away from the edge slowly. She turned quite suddenly, and ran to Riku, throwing her arms around him. Riku held her for a second, before letting go and taking her hand.

"C'mon," he said, starting to run. "They won't do much damage by themselves," he nodded towards a Heartless. "You only need to worry when they attack in groups. Let me know if they get to close."

Namine nodded. Riku cast his gaze to the sky, where it was more than just clouds. A large sphere, red at the center and black at the edges, with winds blowing around it, hung in the sky. It acted as a black hole, sucking everything in. Namine tugged him to a stop. He had nearly run off of the edge. He turned, shocked.

The islands had been reduced to a single landmass, not very wide. Only a single tree stood, and scattered pieces of wood lay about. More and more rubble flew by in the wind, only to be sucked up by the black hole.

A horde of Heartless stood in front of them, taking up nearly the entire landmass. Riku started attacking, getting rid of as many as he could. It was a bit difficult, for Namine refused to let go of his hand. But he didn't really need to bother. Before long, the Heartless were being picked up by the wind and blown into the black hole, which was pulling things in faster than before.

Realizing what was happing, Riku lunged forward and grabbed onto a piece of wood that refused to be budge and held on tightly. It wasn't going to be enough. The black hole was pulling stronger now, eager to eat up every last bit of the islands that remained. Namine gasped, the black hole sucking her in, and the winds trying to separate them.

Their eyes met for a split second as their hands slowly slipped apart.

"I'll find you!" Riku called. He couldn't hold on to her any longer. She slipped out of his grasp, and on instinct he tried to reach out and grab hold of her hand again. But he knew it was too late. He had lost her too.

He turned to the piece of wood he was holding onto, the only thing anchoring him to this world. Then, of his own free will, he let go.


	6. Traverse Town

Riku slowly blinked his eyes open. Where he found himself was so odd, at first he thought he was dreaming. But then he realized it was too real to be a dream. Not recognizing where he was, and still half asleep, he instinctively shifted into Dark Mode. But as his body became fully functioning he quickly shifted out of Dark Mode and tried to get a sense of where he was.

He pushed himself to his feet and looked around. He seemed to be in a town. Investigating further, he found that he was indeed in a town, one he didn't recognize. He was in another world.

"How did I get here?" he asked quietly. Then it all came back to him. How Sora had disappeared, sucked up by the darkness. How the islands were pulled apart. How Kairi had been lost. And then how he had lost Namine.

"Oh no…" he groaned, rubbing his head.

He looked around. Plenty of people stood around, looking as lost and out of place as he did. Unsure of where exactly he should go, he made his way towards the nearest shop.

"Hey there, how can I-" the shopkeeper said when he entered, and then paused. "Aw, it's only a kid." The shopkeeper returned to what he was doing before.

Riku glared at him for a second, not too happy about being called a kid. The shopkeeper was a middle aged man with blonde hair, and had a twig sticking out of his mouth.

"My name's Riku," he said, approaching the counter. The shopkeeper turned around.

"Nice to meet you then," the shopkeeper said, taking a long look at Riku. He frowned. "You lost or something?"

"No," Riku replied rather quickly.

"Well if you're not lost, and you're not a customer, then GET OUT!"

Riku frowned, but didn't move. The shopkeeper continued to stare at him.

"Where are we?" Riku asked after a moment.

"I thought you said you weren't lost!" the shopkeeper yelled, starting to sound angry.

"I'm not."

The shopkeeper looked at Riku as if he were crazy. He then fingered the twig in his mouth for a second, and said slowly: "We're in Traverse Town."

Something sparked in the back of Riku's mind, he was sure he had heard that somewhere before. Silence passed for a second, as the shopkeeper continued to stare at Riku, trying to decide whether or not this kid was insane.

"Are you sure you're not lost?" the shopkeeper asked.

"Yes, gramps, I'm positive" Riku replied, smiling to himself.

"Don't call me gramps!" the shopkeeper shouted. "The name's Cid." He paused for a second, continuing to stare at Riku. "So if you're not lost, then why the long face?"

"My home was destroyed when the Heartless attacked," Riku explained. Cid grimaced at the mention of Heartless, as if he understood. "I lost my friends too. Any idea if they would be around here?"

Cid shrugged. "Maybe. No way to tell for sure. Take a look around town though, if you like."

"Alright." Riku started out the door.

"Hey! You gonna buy anything?" Cid called.

"Nope." Riku replied, leaving.

**xxx**

After thoroughly searching the town, and finding absolutely nothing, Riku returned to Cid's shop.

"Are you sure there's no way of knowing whether or not anyone's shown up around here?" Riku asked.

"Yes," Cid replied.

Riku groaned. "Are you POSITIVE?" he asked, voice rising a bit with anger.

"Listen, kid," Cid said, starting to sound annoyed. "This is Traverse Town. People come and go here all the time without being noticed."

Riku pounded his fist on the counter in anger, causing Cid to jump.

"Hey!" Cid shouted. "Simmer down!" Desperate to calm Riku down, and get him off his back, he added: "Why don't you try and find Leon? He might know something."

"Where could I find him?" Riku asked, rubbing his hand, which hurt more than he thought it would after hitting the counter.

"He's around town somewhere," Cid replied. "He shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Thanks," Riku muttered, heading out again.

"You SURE you don't want to buy anything?" Cid called, but Riku was gone.

He closed the door behind him, and then started asking the citizens of Traverse Town if they knew of a man named Leon, and if so, where he could possibly find him. After most people telling him that they knew Leon, but not where he was, and a few others telling him to get lost, an extremely nice Moogle said:

"Leon's in the Third District, kupo."

That said, the Moogle walked off. Riku watched it go, and then quickly made his way to the Third District.

Riku hadn't taken more than three steps into the Third District when he caught something moving out of the corner of his eye. Pushing it to the side under the label of paranoia, he kept walking. He caught the movement again when he was pretty much in the middle of the Third District. Not bothering to look before he attacked, he turned and struck.

His blade was blocked by another blade. Gasping in shock, and jumping back, Riku took a good look at who was standing before him. This person wore all black, had brown hair, dark blue eyes, and a scar across the bridge of his nose. He also held a very large sword.

Riku attacked again, and they fought for a while. His opponent proved to be a very good swordsman, who liked to use fire-based attacks. Neither of them managed to land more than one hit on the other, both would quickly block the other's blade. The fight didn't last long though. While they were busy clashing blades and glaring at each other, quite a few Heartless had popped up. Each of them, realizing what had happened, turned and started eliminating Heartless as quickly as possible.

Turning, they caught each other's eye. Instantaneously, they both realized they were pretty much on the same side. A small pang of guilt went through Riku for attacking in the first place. "C'mon!" the man shouted, swinging his blade through a couple of Heartless. "They won't stop coming, we need to head back to the Second District!"

Riku nodded approval, and started in that direction, killing Heartless as he went. They made it through the door into the Second District quickly, and started forcing the door shut behind them. The Heartless were quick, and tried to get through, but they managed to force the door shut in time. They both paused after this, not daring to say anything until they were positive that the Heartless wouldn't break through the door.

"Are you Leon?" Riku asked after a moment. The man turned and nodded.

Leon shook his head sadly. "I thought the Heartless weren't going to be much of a problem. The Third District has always had Heartless lurking about, but I've never seen that many before." Leon turned, looking skeptically at Riku. "Who are you?"

"Riku," he replied.

"C'mon, I'll take you to our Headquarters"

**xxx**

Leon's Headquarters turned out to be one of the Hotel Rooms. There, Riku met a black-haired girl named Yuffie and explained just about everything concerning the destruction of the Islands and the loss of his friends. He asked Leon if Sora, Kairi, or Namine were in town, but Leon didn't respond. It was Yuffie who answered his question.

"Well, Traverse Town is where most people come when their homes are destroyed. I'm sure your friends are on their way."

"That's helpful" Riku snapped sarcastically. Yuffie gave him a dejected look in response.

"Listen, we're all upset when we lose our homes. There's no reason to snap about it." Leon said in a relatively calm voice, but there was a hint of anger behind it.

"Hmph," Riku muttered. "You guys don't understand. I'm not at all worried about my home. I'm worried about my friends. I promised Namine I'd find her after we got separated. And I have no idea where Kairi or Sora ended up."

"Can't help you," Leon said, leaning against the wall.

"No need to be so rude, Leon," Yuffie said. "Maybe they ended up somewhere else." She turned to Riku. "You know there are other worlds, right?"

"Yeah." Riku raised his eyebrows. "You think my friends are in another World…?"

Leon nodded. "Most likely."

Riku, for the first time all day, relaxed. There was still hope.

And, there were still Heartless.

One appeared right in the center of the room. Yuffie yelped in surprise, as it had appeared literally right next to her. Leon swore and brandished his gunblade.

"Yuffie, go get Aerith!" he shouted.

"Got it!"

Yuffie ran out of the room, and Leon looked to Riku.

"Can you help?"

Riku gave a sharp nod, summoning his own blade to him.

"Yeah."

"Then let's go."

They ran outside.


	7. Where is This?

Sora slowly blinked his eyes open. He lay on the ground, face down. He groaned, realizing just how much he hurt. His head hurt, and his body hurt. He pushed himself to his feet and looked around.

"Where… am I?" he asked himself quietly. He didn't recognize where he was one bit. Platforms of ice floated in mid air, leading somewhere. He was standing on an island of sorts, water as still as glass around him. There were also waterfalls, but the water rose, instead of falling. Off in the distance was a large Castle. At first, he started to panic, then he grinned.

He had made it to another world.

In his excitement he leapt into the air. "Yes! I did it!" he shouted, screaming with joy. "Ha!" he shouted, punching the air with his fist. "HA!"

His excitement was short lived, for he soon realized that he seemed to be the only one there. No sign of Kairi, or Riku, or Namine. No one. Had they gotten away too?

 _Of course they did,_ he told himself, laughing.  _Why wouldn't they?_

But where had they ended up? Another world, perhaps? Had they all been separated?

He sighed, his happiness completely gone.

"Where's Kairi?" he asked. He received no response, obviously. "I wonder what happened to her…" He slowly began to worry. He really wasn't worried about Riku. In fact, after that first thought, wondering where everyone had gone, he hadn't thought about Riku again. He looked up towards the Castle in the distance. It seemed there was still a lot left to this world. Maybe someone else besides him had ended up here.

Confidently, Sora took a step forward, and then let out a gasp. A wave of pain shot up his side when he took that step. He gasped for air, and now it hurt to breathe. He clutched his side and stood there for a few minutes, until he had caught his breath and the pain had subsided.

He jumped to the first ice platform, and the next, and then the one after that. Most ledges were a bit high for him to reach, and he had to catch onto the edge of it and then pull himself up. As he went, his side started hurting again. First, it was just a dull throb, but it slowly eased its way up to the pain he had felt before. He would pause whenever it reached this point and let the pain subside. But it took longer to subside every time, and soon he was just moving on with the pain, doing his best to ignore it. After a while, his vision became blurry around the edges, making it hard to see. Thankfully, he never fell off the platforms. He was sure if he had fallen, he probably wouldn't have gotten back up.

Close to the end, he could hardly see at all, and the pain was a bit overwhelming. He misjudged his jump slightly, and nearly missed, but thankfully caught onto the edge. He hung there for a second, gathering his strength. With one mighty pull, he heaved himself onto the platform. He attempted to stand up again, but his vision went completely, and he fell to the ground.

**xxx**

Namine clutched at her head, probably already writhing on the floor in pain. She wasn't quite sure. It hurt too much to think straight. She would try and open her eyes, only for the waves of pain to overcome her. She wasn't sure where they were coming from. Sometimes it seemed as if there was something around her, causing this pain, and other times it felt as if it was only all in her head.

Then she was sure it was all in her head. Why? Because of what she was seeing.

_It was warped, confused, angry. But it was familiar. He was familiar. Even if the scene was warped, his face remained constant. Riku. Each scene, they changed frequently, had something to do with him. Sometimes he would be fighting, and it would change from one black cloaked figure to another black cloaked figure between strokes of the blade. Other times, he would be talking. The scenes changed so quickly, she could never catch who he was talking to. But she saw Sora's face a couple of times, the black cloaked figures occasionally, once she thought she saw him talking to himself, and she swore she saw her own face a couple of times._

_But then the memories shattered, and it felt as if she was lying, abandoned, on the cold floor._

_But there was a flash, and the scene shifted, and she was lying on the floor again. This time, she didn't feel so abandoned, but she hurt. And she found in front of her, lying cold and abandoned, Riku. His eyes were blank, and his mouth half open in shock._

_"Riku" she whispered, reaching out to him. But he was out of reach._

She opened her eyes, still clutching her head, but the pain was gone. Slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around. She had no idea where she was. She seemed to be in the middle of a forest, of sorts. Large tree stumps and boulders were here and there, along with a few giant flowers and mushrooms. The trees seemed to be giant blades of grass.

"Where am I?" she asked, but received no response from the world around her.

**xxx**

_He clutched his head, probably already writing on the floor in pain. He wasn't quite sure. It hurt too much to think straight._

_Flash. Change._

_"Surely, you knew this was going to happen." Of all people, it was Zexion that said it._

_"Why would I know?" he snapped, walking forward._

_"You've been through these worlds before, and all you encountered were-"_

_Flash. Change._

_"Riku…" Namine whispered, turning to face him._

_"Namine!" he shouted._

_Darkness spilled out the door behind her, taking over the scene-_

_Flash. Change._

_He landed on the floor, lightning cackling around his body. He winced in pain and turned himself over._

_"Stupid little toy! Think you could defeat me?" Larxene giggled, highly amused._

_He slowly backed up, trying to put as much distance between her and him as possible._

_Flash. Change._

_"I said STOP!"_

_He wasn't sure what happened, exactly, but it felt as if his brain exploded. He fell to the ground, not even feeling himself hit the floor._

_Flash. Change._

_"So you're a fake me" the real guy said-_

"NOT A FAKE!" he shouted, sitting up.

To his embarrassment and shock, Leon and a two of his friends were staring at him. He was in one of the beds of the hotel room that served as their base. When had he gotten here?

"Not a  _what_?" Yuffie said. She was glaring.

"Yuffie, shh," said the only face Riku didn't recognize. She was wearing all pink, her hair tied back with a bow. She studied Riku with concerned eyes. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Riku nodded. "Yeah, of course," he grumbled. "Probably…" He reached up to rub his head. It felt like it was on fire. "What… what happened?"

"We were fighting Heartless," Leon answered, carefully. He looked similarly worried himself. "Then you just… collapsed. We brought you back here to get you away from the Heartless, and so Aerith could look at you easier—are you  _sure_ he's not hurt?" This last question was directed at the woman who had to be Aerith.

Aerith nodded. "Positive," she said, with a roll of her eyes. "You're acting like I don't know how to heal, Leon."

"My head hurts," Riku offered. "Can you do anything about that?"

"Of course she can, Aerith's the best healer ever!" Yuffie said.

"You know there's not much I can do for headaches, Yuffie," Aerith countered, with a shake of her head. She reached into a medicine kit beside her, though, and produced a small bottle. "A potion might help, though," she said, handing it to Riku.

Riku took it, sniffed it experimentally, and despite its strange smell, downed it in one gulp. It tasted as funny as it smelled, but his headache started to subside.

"So… I just  _collapsed_?" Riku asked, setting the empty bottle down on the table next to him.

Leon gave a sharp nod.

"I wasn't hit by Heartless?"

"Don't know. Wasn't looking at the time."

"I didn't see anything, either," Yuffie added.

"And I hadn't gotten there yet," Aerith said.

"Weird…" Riku mumbled. He couldn't remember anything happening, either.

"Hey, what was that you…?" Yuffie began, but Aerith cut her off with a stern look and a raise of her hand.

"Just… Just a nightmare," Riku explained, looking away from the both of them. "Don't worry about it."

Yuffie scowled and folded her arms over her chest, but said no more. Aerith gave Riku a quick, kind smile. Leon, his own arms folded across his chest, looked at the ground.

"Hey… what are you guys?" Riku asked, looking between them. "If this is your headquarters, then, you're some kind of… what?"

"Not much, really," Leon answered. "I know I called this headquarters, but actually…" He trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

"We're the only people in town who are any good at fighting Heartless," Yuffie said, with a roll of her eyes. "That's all."

"That's all?" Aerith asked, and she laughed. Leon sighed and shook his head, but he was smiling almost as wide. "We're family, really," she told Riku. "Leon and I have always been, but by this point, Yuffie and Cid are too. After we lost our world, and- and…" She shook her head, as if not wanting to say it. "Well, all we really have left any more is each other."

"Oh…" Riku said, not sure what else to say. He supposed that  _did_ answer his question, though.

"Y'know, you're pretty good with the Heartless," Yuffie said. "Minus the whole collapsing thing, anyway. Might, uh, be nice if you stuck around."

"Sorry," Riku told her, not that he meant it. He pushed himself out of the bed. "I really need to get going and find my friends. If I could stay I would." He didn't really mean that, either.

"Don't worry about it, Yuffie's just trying to pawn her work off on you," Leon said.

"Am not!"

"Mmhmm."

Leon didn't sound like he believed her at all.

"You are always welcome here if you do need a place to stay, though," Aerith assured him. "Regardless of how good you are with the Heartless."

"Uh, thanks," Riku said, as he headed out the door.

He waited until he was in the alley of Traverse Town, where he wouldn't be seen, before opening a dark corridor and stepping into an unknown world that lay beyond.


	8. Riku in Wonderland

Riku stepped out into a very green world. The grass was green, as were the hedges that surrounded him. On the other side of one hedge wall, it seemed as if there was some type of trial taking place.

"Looking for someone?" someone asked. Riku turned, shocked, ready to pull out his blade. But he stopped. It was just a cat. It was a very odd pink and purple striped (not to mention talking) cat that juggled its head around and balanced on its tail. But it was a cat nevertheless.

"How did you know that?" Riku asked.

"Know what?" the cat asked. Riku stared at it.

"That I was looking for someone," Riku clarified.

"Oh, you are!" the cat seemed positively excited. Riku continued to stare. "Who are you looking for?" the cat asked. Apparently he didn't answer quick enough, for the cat started talking again. "Perhaps, who you're looking for is right over there." The cat flicked its tail in the direction of the trial. Riku looked in that particular direction and noticed a girl with blonde hair. But, it was not who he was looking for.

"No, that's not her," Riku said, turning back to the cat. But the cat was gone. He took a second to wonder where the cat had gone, only to decide it didn't matter. The cat was NOT who he was looking for. And neither was the girl on trial.

Very quietly, Riku tiptoed around the edge of the trial, managing to go unnoticed. Most of the people there seemed to be playing cards, and weren't very bright. Everyone else was too occupied.

"Oh dear!" someone cried, grabbing his attention. He froze, hoping he hadn't been spotted. That didn't seem to be the problem though.

"Where's Alice!"

It seemed the girl on trial had simply disappeared.

"FIND HER!" a booming voice shouted. All the cards snapped to attention and chimed in chorus:

"YES YOUR MAGESTY!"

And then everyone started scrambling about.

Riku quickly edged his way to an opening in the hedge wall and ducked through it, glad to get away from the chaos.

He stepped into a forest, which actually seemed to be nothing more than an oversized garden. Not really to his surprise, the cat appeared over on a nearby rock.

"So Alice was NOT who you were looking for?" the cat asked.

"No," Riku replied tersely.

The cat laughed. "Hmm, well then who are you looking for?"

"My friends."

"What about them?"

Riku grunted. "I'm looking for my friends," he said slowly.

"Oh really?" the cat asked. "Well why didn't you say so?"

Riku scowled at the cat. "Do you know where they are?" he asked politely, but didn't stop glaring.

"Where who are?"

Riku bit his tongue to keep himself from shouting. "Do you know where my friends are?"

The cat scratched his head (which, at the moment, was by his feet). "You know, I'm not quite certain. But you might want to check over thataway." The cat flicked his tail over in one direction.

"I have half a mind not to believe you…" Riku muttered.

"Oh, half a mind indeed!" the cat laughed. "Can you stand on your head?" he asked, while proceeding to do so, literally.

"What?" Riku asked at the pure absurdity. "Wait. No. I'm leaving."

"So soon?"

"Yes!" Riku snapped, storming off.

**xxx**

"Over thataway" turned out to be through a good portion of the forest. But, Riku did eventually arrive at what he assumed the cat had told him to go. It seemed to be some sort of tea party. Well, it was a tea party, but it seemed quite hectic. Quite sure he would not be able to handle any more madness, he almost moved on.

"Riku!"

He looked, wondering who would call his name. That he knew of, no one here even knew it. But sitting at the table, smiling at him, was Namine.

He broke out into a grin. "Namine!" he called. He headed over to her. "You're okay!"

She nodded.

Riku sighed. "That's a relief. I was worried."

"Why don't you sit down?" Namine said. Riku shrugged and pulled up a chair.

The other two people at this tea party, a man with a large hat and a hare, rushed over, shouting: "No room! No room!"

"But-" Riku began.

"It's very rude to sit down without being invited!" the Hare said.

"I'll say it's rude," the Mad Hatter echoed. "Very rude indeed."

"It's alright," Namine said quickly. "I invited him."

"Oh really!" the Mad Hatter asked, sounding quite excited.

"Well in that case…!" the Hare said, and the two burst into song.

"Who are these guys?" Riku asked Namine quietly. She shrugged.

"I'm not quite sure," she replied. "But they do seem to be the nicest people around here… A bit mad, perhaps," She added slowly. "I think they're alright though."

Riku didn't say anything for a moment. Then he asked: "So you've been here he whole time?"

"Yeah," Namine said. "What about you? Where'd you end up?"

"Some place called Traverse Town," Riku replied.

"Was anyone else there?"

Riku shook his head sadly. "I have no idea where Sora and Kairi are."

"Oh," Namine muttered. "I'm worried about them…"

"We'll find them soon," Riku assured her. "It didn't take me long to find you."

Namine giggled. "That's true."

Riku smiled softly to himself. "We can leave now if you want, we'll find them sooner that way."

"Leave!?" the Mad Hatter gasped, deciding it would be a good time to take notice of Riku. "But you haven't had any tea!"

Riku rubbed his head. The insanity of this world made his head hurt. Nevertheless, he took the cup of tea he was passed. A couple of shouts made him look up, and to his disdain a bunch of Card Soldiers had shown up in search of Alice. He stared at them for a second before slowly reaching behind him and opening up a portal.

"We're leaving," he told Namine.

"Good idea," she replied.

Quickly, and unnoticed, the two of them left the scene.

**xxx**

Sora sat quietly, running his hands over his Keyblade. Ever since leaving Destiny Islands and ending up in Hollow Bastion (which was the name of the world) he had been able to summon it at will. Maleficent, who was the owner of the castle and had offered him a place to stay, said that there were plenty of Heartless around, and that he was free to practice fighting them whenever he felt like it.

His thoughts were interrupted, when someone suddenly appeared in front of him. Though he didn't know it, this someone was the Alice that had mysteriously disappeared from Wonderland not long ago.

"What-" Sora gasped, letting go of his Keyblade, which disappeared instantly.

He was even more surprised when a bunch of Heartless jumped out and attacked the girl.

"What the!" he shouted, quite confused.

"Ignore her."

Sora looked up, finding Maleficent standing next to him. "B-but-" he stuttered.

Maleficent ignored his outburst. "Come," she said, "I have something to show you."

"Okay…" Sora said skeptically, getting to his feet.


	9. Rage Awakened

Riku and Namine stepped out into Traverse Town. The place seemed a bit more deserted than usual. Plenty of people were still standing about though, looking lost, just like last time. But among all of those people, was someone who actually didn't look lost. Just a bit confused, and trying not to look confused, and failing miserably at it. Riku smiled.

"Hey! Sora!" he shouted. Said confused person (Sora), turned around, grinned, and walked over.

"Hey, Riku!" Sora said. "Hey-" he stopped suddenly, glancing at Namine. His smile fell, and he stood silent for a second, before turning to Riku with a glare in his eyes. "Where's Kairi?" he asked sternly.

Riku paused, and his smile fell too. "Sorry, Sora, I-"

"You haven't found her!" Sora asked, in disbelief.

"Well no," Riku said, starting to get confused. "I've only been searching for a day…"

"You found Namine!" Sora shouted.

"What!" Riku asked, his voice rising with anger. "You're getting mad at  _me_  because Namine just so happened to be in the first world I searched in! Sora, that's ridiculous!"

"You don't even care about Kairi, do you!"

"Sora!" Riku shouted in disbelief. "Are you even listening to me? I haven't been searching that long! Of course I care about Kairi!"

"Sure aren't acting like it…" Sora muttered.

"What do you want me to do!" Riku asked angrily. "Apologize for finding Namine first? It's not like that's my fault! I wouldn't have left Kairi behind if I had find found her!"

"You weren't even searching for her were you!"

"Of course I was! I was looking for all of you!"

Nothing Riku said was getting through to Sora. Sora only cared about one thing: Kairi. And more importantly, why Riku hadn't found her. In his mind, if Riku had found Namine, that meant he had time to find Kairi, and since Kairi wasn't here, Riku only cared about Namine. Of course, a good portion of these thoughts were forming from the darkness that was slowly growing inside him. Especially the one that was telling him over and over again: "Riku doesn't care."

Frustration coursed through Sora and he clenched his fists in anger. "You never cared about us, Riku!" he shouted. "You never cared about me and Kairi! All you care about is Namine!"

"That's not true!" Riku shouted, about as frustrated as Sora was. "Of course I care!"

Sora's eyes darted over in Namine's direction, a bit of hatred flashing in them. "But you care about Namine more, don't you?"

Riku stopped dead in his tracks, anger brought to a cold halt when confronted with that question. He stood, speechless, unsure of how to answer. He couldn't say no. It was impossible to deny. Everyone could see it, he cared about Namine more than anyone. And that's why Sora had asked the question.

"I knew it," Sora muttered.

Riku's hand slowly clenched into a fist, his blade forming readily. Anger was pulsing through him quick now.  _So like Sora,_ he thought,  _so like him._  Of course, he was comparing the Sora standing in front of him to the Sora he knew from his past, which weren't alike at all. He was about ready to strike, when Namine tugged his shirt gently. Riku stopped glaring at Sora and turned to look at her. She simply pointed off to the side, where heartless were slowly appearing.

"Hello…" Riku muttered, watching the Neoshadows slowly form.

"Huh?" Sora asked, anger slowly fading and he started to sound normal again. He turned and looked behind him, also noting the Neoshadows. He swiftly pulled out his Keyblade and started attacking. Riku just smiled and rushed forward, quickly killing one of them with only a couple of hits.

Sora struggled, it took him much longer to destroy the heartless than it took Riku. In the time it took him to kill one, Riku had already killed three or four. Sora kept glancing at Riku, watching him kill the heartless with ease. He grunted, angrily hacking away at the one attacking him until it was gone. Namine stood off to the side, out of the way, warning both of them when a Neoshadow was sneaking up behind them. She ended up warning Sora more, mainly because he was to busy envying Riku to properly pay attention to the heartless.

But within no time, all the heartless had been eliminated.

"Not bad," Riku laughed, turning to look at Sora, quite impressed. He banished his blade and smiled.

"Thanks," Sora said.

Riku looked at the blade in Sora's hand, and his eyes widened in shock. Sora held a Keyblade. It wasn't much of a surprise, but it was still a bit of shock, considering it had been so long since he had last seen one. Sora followed Riku's gaze and grinned. He held up his Keyblade for Riku to see.

"I finally got a real weapon," he laughed.

"That's great!" Riku said, and then squinted, looking closer. The Keyblade looked exactly like he remembered it, except one minor detail. So small that you could hardly see it, but it was still there. There was a tiny crack in the middle of the blade. "Can I see…?" Riku asked slowly, reaching out.

"NO!" Sora said quickly, pulling the blade back and then quickly banishing it.

Riku scowled, a bit confused. He sighed. "This is still about Kairi, isn't it?" he asked.

Sora's silence told him all he needed to know.

"Listen, Sora, I am REALLY sorry I haven't found her yet," Riku said. "And don't think I'm not worried, I am. But listen, if we work together, we can find Kairi in no time flat." He offered his hand out to Sora. "Together, yeah?"

"Together," Sora scoffed. "When have  _you_  ever wanted to work together? You always told me I wasn't strong enough. Told me to stay home! You kept telling me that you could handle everything, said that I didn't need to worry about it. I didn't think you would ever ask for  _my_  help. I thought I wasn't strong enough for you. But you know what?" Sora's voice had been rising with anger as he spoke, and by this point he was shouting. "I  _am_  stronger now. I'll show you Riku, I'll show you! I can find Kairi on my own!" He turned and ran.

"Sora!" Riku called, running after him. But by the time he had made it to the Second District, Sora was long gone. "Sora…" he groaned, a bit shocked and shaken by what Sora had said.

"It's not your fault," Namine told him, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"But what if it is…" Riku muttered. "All that time, Sora never said a word, never said he had a problem. If I had known that it had bothered him this much…" He shook his head.

"I-I don't think that's it…" Namine said quietly. She had a feeling something different was going on. Riku didn't hear her, he was still lost in his own thoughts.

"Maybe he did say… and I just never heard. I spent so much time worrying about myself… Maybe that's why he thinks I don't care. Because I was so distant…"

"Riku, I really don't think that's it," Namine said again. "Something else is going on here."

"But what?" Riku asked.

Namine shrugged. She had no idea.


	10. Trickery

Riku received news of Leon's new headquarters from the nice Moogle had been kind to him before. Headquarters was now located in a small house in the Third District. Riku figured he should talk to Leon, and maybe ask if Leon could find a place for Namine to stay. He didn't want to drag her around while he continued searching.

"Hey kid," Cid said when they walked in. "You look like something's eating at you. What's up?"

Riku paused, unsure of how to explain what just happened. "Well, I just ran into my friend Sora, and we kind of got into a fight-"

"So that was you!" Cid laughed.

Riku looked up in shock. "You heard?"

"Kid, are you kidding? The whole TOWN heard! You two were shouting pretty loud."

"Oh," Riku muttered, not quite sure if he should be embarrassed or not.

"What  _were_  you two yelling about?" Yuffie asked.

Riku scowled, not too happy about that subject. "Sora's got it in his head that I don't care anymore. He got all mad that I didn't find Kairi, and started shouting. I don't get what his problem is…" he trailed off, not daring to say anymore to keep his anger in check.

"Riku, please don’t get mad at him…" Namine said quietly.

Everyone looked up in shock, as if they had only noticed that Namine was standing behind Riku. They probably  _had_ only noticed, considering Namine was good about going unnoticed. She waved shyly, obviously a bit nervous that everyone was staring at her. Leon, Yuffie and Cid seemed quite shocked. Aerith, though, smiled and said:

"I'm so happy you found one of your friends!"

"Oh, yeah," Riku said, sounding a lot calmer. "This is Namine. Namine, this is; Leon, Cid, Yuffie, and Aerith." He pointed at each in turn, and they each waved in response.

"Hi," Namine said, smiling.

"Do you still have other friends to find?" Leon asked.

Riku nodded once. "Yeah."

"Anything we can do to help?"

"Actually, yeah," Riku said, turning to look at Leon. "I was wondering if, maybe, you guys could look after Namine while I went and figured out where Sora ran off to. And I should probably look for Kairi, to make him stop yelling at me." Then, as an afterthought he muttered under his breath: "that'll at least solve one of our problems."

Not to his surprise, it was Yuffie who responded: "Yeah, we could definitely do that!"

"Thanks guys, you don't realize how much this means to me," Riku said

"Yeah yeah," Cid grumbled. "Save your 'thank you's for later. In the meantime, have you ever heard of Maleficent? I hear she's in town."

Namine politely shook her head no. Riku, however, paused. This was the second time being confronted with a question such as this, and for the second time, something in the dark depths of Riku's mind jumped at mention of the name. But again, he knew not what it was or where it came from. So, he asked: "Who's she?"

"She's a witch, man!" Cid shouted. "A witch!"

"She's the reason this town is full of heartless," Leon further explained. "Don't take her lightly."

"I won't," Riku laughed.

"She's been using the heartless for years," Aerith sighed.

"We lost our world, thanks to her," Yuffie mumbled, not at all happy. "A swarm of heartless just showed up one day and took over our whole world!"

"That's awful…" Namine whispered.

"When was this?" Riku asked

"Four years ago," Leon replied roughly.

"Yeah, I helped these guys out of that mess, and we ended up here," Cid explained.

Namine and Riku exchanged glances, unsure of what to say. It seemed there was nothing too say. They room faded into silence.

**xxx**

"How did it go?" Maleficent asked as he approached.

"Terrible," Sora muttered. "He doesn't care anymore."

A smile played on Maleficent's lips. "See, it's just as I told you. He obviously cares more about her than he does about you. You're better off without him."

"I know" Sora muttered. "I can stay with you, right?"

"Of course" Maleficent said, all-too-sweetly. "I can help you find what you're searching for…"

**xxx**

Riku was about ready to head off. Namine was standing there watching him go.

"Hey," she called, as he was halfway through the dark corridor. He paused, stepping out of it, as he did not want to have a conversation while standing halfway between two worlds.

"Yeah?" he asked

She paused, not sure if she wanted to ask the question now. "So, what you said back there, you don't want me to come with you? Any reason why?"

He started to say something, and then stopped. After thinking for a second he said: "It's not that I don't  _want_  you to. It's just-"

"I'd kinda get in your way," Namine finished for him.

Riku looked at her, unsure if she had just finished his sentence how he wanted it. But, she had. "Yeah," he agreed. "That, and it's probably dangerous."

"I get it," she laughed. He smiled.

"Bye," he said, stepping through the dark corridor.

"Good luck," she called. She watched as the corridor faded away, and looked down at her open sketchbook. The picture she had just drawn was of Riku and Sora locked in combat. She frowned at the picture, and added under her breath. "You'll need it."


	11. To Our Surprise

Riku stepped out into the next world, which seemed slightly deserted. Well, he seemed to be at like an entrance area, as there was a building with large doors off to one side. He looked off to the other side, and found three large… scoreboards. Yeah, they were definitely scoreboards.

"Hey! Kid! What are you doing here?"

Riku turned around, slightly shocked. A small… goat… stood in front of him. (Said goat's name was Phil, but Riku didn't know that.) He frowned, not quite liking being called a kid. He opened his mouth to say something, but Phil stopped him.

"You here for the games?" he asked.

"Sure..." Riku said, unsure of what he was going to get himself into.

"Well I got two words for you," Phil said. "You. Can't. Join."

Riku's frown/confusion turned into a scowl. Even though he probably didn't want to join the games anyways, being flat out told no was slightly annoying, and made him kind of want to join. Phil, apparently having said enough, turned and walked away. Riku's eyes darted over to the large doors, behind which he assumed said games were held. He slowly smirked and opened up a dark corridor, and then quietly stepped through…

…Only to step out in the middle of a match. He quickly pulled out his blade and slashed through a heartless that jumped at him. He wasn't sure if he should stop fighting or not, considering this wasn't technically his fight. He stopped thinking about it though, because if he didn't fight, the heartless were going to kill him.

"No!" someone shouted.

Riku paused, he knew that voice. He turned (killing a heartless as he went) and raised his eyebrows. "Sora?" It was more of a statement than a question, but he was still slightly surprised.

"No, you can't be here!" Sora said, shaking his head.

Riku scowled, absentmindedly knocking aside a heartless that attacked him. Sora killed a few that were sneaking up on him in the meantime, and then returned to glaring at Riku. Neither of them said anything, and the heartless slowly seemed to dwindle off.

Sora was the first to break the silence. "Still haven't found Kairi?"

Riku clenched his fists. Why wouldn't Sora drop this? "No," he said tersely. Then he smiled, and taunted: "But I seem to be doing more than you. At least I'm not just sitting around playing games."

Sora started fuming. A grim smile played on Riku's lips. He wasn't trying to be amused at Sora's pain, but… there was something inside of him laughing, and he just couldn't ignore it.

"I- I just-" Sora stuttered. His anger turned to more of a confused anger. A slight look of horror showed in his eyes, and for a second, Riku got the feeling Sora had no idea what he was doing. To cover up his confusion, he quickly asked: "Why are you here?"

"I'm looking for Kairi. You?"

"The same."

"Uh-huh…" Riku said, but said no more.

"Hey! Kid! What do you think you're doing?" someone shouted. Both Riku and Sora turned to look and found Phil. "The crowd came to see a fight!" he shouted at them. "Not the two of you talking."

Riku turned to Sora. "What do you say?" he asked. "How about a fight, just like back on the islands? Just like old times?" His fingers twitched around the hilt of his blade, almost eager to fight.

Sora looked at Riku, something of a scowl on his face. He readied his weapon. "You're on!" he declared.

Riku smiled a smidge as Sora charged. He ducked and rolled out of the way of the oncoming blade. He swung his blade at Sora, and their blades crossed in a flurry of clashes as they each attempted to pull combo and were each blocked by their opponent.

"You're getting good!" Riku laughed, making a swing at Sora, which was easily dodged.

"I've been practicing," Sora said, managing to hit Riku once before his blade was blocked. Riku returned the attack with a combo, which landed nicely. Sora winced in pain and backed up, before jumping into the air and bringing his blade crashing down.

Riku quickly blocked it, and he and Sora spent a second glaring at each other. But Riku gasped when he noticed something. The crack on Sora's Keyblade that he had noted not even a day ago had grown. It was now actually noticeable now, a good few inches long. Riku managed to throw Sora off of him. Sora landed on his feet and quickly rushed in for another attack. Riku ducked and knocked Sora off balance. Sora's Keyblade fell from his hand and disappeared.

"I win," Riku declared, holding his blade at Sora's throat.

Sora angrily pushed the blade way and got to his feet. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "You win."

The smile on Riku's face slowly fell. Sora had never been such a sore loser before. He was never happy about losing, of course, but he had never taken it this badly. Well, before… that one day. Riku winced at the thought of that memory. The last time he and Sora had fought on the islands, when Riku had left the battle bleeding.

Sora stared at Riku, anger burning in him. He was about ready to strike back, when the same memory rang within him. He stopped, turning aside. The anger within him died down quickly into spirals of confusion. What was he even doing here?

 _I'm looking for Kairi_ , Sora told himself. And that thought smoothed over his confusion. He was doing this all for her. He was trying to find her, that's all. It was up to him. Riku didn't care.

His anger flared up again with his twisted thoughts. And he turned to glare at Riku.

"Sora, what's up?" Riku asked.

"Nothing," Sora replied tersely. "I just want to find Kairi."

"Then let's stop wasting our time and go!"

Sora shook his head. "Alone," he said. "I don't need your help."

"But-"

Sora walked away. Riku watched him go in shock. He wasn't quite sure about what had just happened.

**xxx**

Namine rubbed her head. She blinked her eyes a few times, and then paused, doing a double take. Her sketchbook sat in her lap, open to a picture she couldn't quite remember drawing.

The picture was of Sora and Riku. Riku was on his knees, clutching a bleeding wound. A wooden sword lay off to the side. Sora stood above him, his own wooden sword in hand, with a look of shock on his face.

She remembered this moment. But that didn't explain why she had drawn it.


	12. Bent out of Shape

When Riku stepped out into Traverse Town quite a few odd things happened. For starters, a duck and a dog walked right past him. He caught quite an interesting snippet of conversation from the two of them, not to mention their names. The duck's name was Donald, and the dog's name was Goofy. And, it seemed they were searching for Leon. On almost an impulse, he said: "I know Leon."

That brought their attention to him.

"Who are you?" Donald asked, a bit rudely.

"My name is Riku."

"You know Leon?" Goofy asked, much nicer than Donald had.

"Yeah. Here, I'll take you to him."

**xxx**

"So, you guys are looking for the Key…" Leon said slowly.

"A-hyuck! Yup," Goofy said.

"What?" Riku asked, being pulled back into reality. He had spaced out, due to the fact that the conversation had had nothing to do with him. "What was this about a key?" They looked at him, all confused. "Do you mean Key as in… Key…blade?" Riku asked.

"Yeah," Leon replied.

Riku's eyes went wide with shock, and his jaw nearly hit the floor. "I know who you're looking for," he said after a moment of stunned silence.

"Who?" Donald demanded.

"That's the thing…" Riku muttered, frowning. "I don't know  _where_  he is, or whether or not he'd be able to help you. Sora's… not quite right at the moment… I'm not quite sure what his problem is."

"You're friend Sora's the Keyblade wielder?" Yuffie asked, sounding as shocked as Riku felt. "Why didn't you mention this?"

"I didn't think it was important…"

"Every world among the stars has a Keyhole. And each Keyhole leads to the Heart of that world" Leon explained.

"Where are you going with this?" Riku asked

"It was in Ansem's report," Yuffie said, as if that explained everything.

"The Heartless enter through the world's Keyhole and do something to the world's heart," Leon continued.

"What happens to the world?" Donald asked.

"In the end, it disappears," Yuffie replied.

"What?" Riku, Donald, and Goofy all asked at the same time. Riku glanced over at the two of them a bit skeptically, but turned back to Leon.

"The Keyblade, however, locks these Keyholes, and the Heartless can never find them," Leon finished.

"So it is important…" Riku said slowly.

"Yup," Yuffie told him.

"Not good…" Riku whispered, looking at all of the people in the room. People that were depending on the Keyblade wielder to save them, and they all now knew that it wasn't going to happen. A nagging thought at the back of Riku's mind was telling him that it was his fault, but he was doing his best to ignore it.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Donald wondered aloud, sounding less rude and more worried now.

"Gawrsh," Goofy said. "I don't know…"

"Riku," Leon said. "You need to go find Sora-"

"And smack some sense into him," Riku finished.

"I wasn't going to say it like that…" Leon muttered.

"I'll go find him then," Riku laughed, turning and walking out. "Wish me luck!" he called over his shoulder, before opening up a Dark Corridor and leaving.

**xxx**

"You look unhappy…" Maleficent said slowly as Sora entered the room.

"You think?" Sora asked, angrily. "Riku beat me! Again!"

Unnoticed, Maleficent smiled. Everything was lining up according to plan. "There is a way you can become stronger."

"There is!" Sora asked eagerly, excitement growing in his eyes. "Tell me! What can I do?"

"There are seven maidens the purest of heart, we call them Princesses of Heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lies untold wisdom and power."

A grin spread across Sora's face.

"Don't get your hopes up kid," Hades said, stepping out of the shadows. Sora was not at all surprised. Most of the people in league with Maleficent tended to do this; stand in the shadows while Maleficent talked, only putting in input if they felt it was needed.

"We don't have all the princesses just yet, you see?" Hades continued. A holographic image of Kairi appeared on the table in the center of the room. She sat alone, leaning up against a wall, looking off to the side.

"Kairi," Sora whispered, smiling softly. "Wait…" he said slowly, and his smile fell into confusion. "You think Kairi's one of them?" he asked, looking up at Maleficent, quite clueless.

"Does it matter? You want to find her, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" Sora answered quickly. "But what's the catch? There's gotta be a catch. You guys have to be helping me for some reason."

"It is really quite simple," Maleficent said. "We just need your help in finding the final Keyhole."

"Sweet!" Sora grinned. "So if I just help you guys with the Keyhole thing, you help me find Kairi and the power to become stronger."

"Precisely."

"Alright," Sora's smile fell into a more serious tone, and his eyes grew cold. "But listen, if  _any_  of you," he looked at each person in the room in turn, to make his point, "lays a  _finger_  on Kairi. The deal's off, got it?"

"Of course," Maleficent said.


	13. Spooks and Sweets

Namine was flipping through the pictures in her sketchbook, growing more and more curious by the second. Half of these she didn't remember actually drawing, and the rest barely made sense. Even the ones that made sense she didn't understand. Those ones, they were pictures of Riku, in different Worlds. She would draw them randomly throughout the day, and each time, as she drew the picture, she got the feeling that she was  _drawing_  exactly what Riku was  _seeing._  Which was really odd...

She paused at one picture, looking at it. It was one of the ones she couldn't remember drawing. It was her and Riku, but Riku looked different. His eyes were more angry, his face almost gaunt. She herself was also different. The look on her face was… sad… or, guilty, she dared to think.

What confused her, among other things, was why she had drawn herself this way. She didn't remember this. And, usually, most pictures she had drawn of her and Riku they were both smiling. Riku was smiling in this picture, though it almost looked strained. Almost though.

She was brought out of her confusion when she heard the unmistakable sound of a Dark Corridor opening. Riku was back. She smiled softly to herself and put her sketchbook down before heading outside.

**xxx**

Riku returned to Traverse Town after searching through three different worlds and finding absolutely nothing. He would have continued onto the next world without stopping, but he had run out of potions.

So, after stocking up on potions, he was about ready to leave again when-

"Leaving already?"

Namine stood behind him. He smiled slightly. "Yeah," he replied.

"Oh… well… I was wondering…" Namine said slowly. "Would it be okay if I… came with you?"

"What?" Riku asked, a bit taken aback by the question.

"Please! Just this once!" she pleaded.

"N-no! It's too dangerous," he told her. She stood there a second, thinking hard. After a moment of pondering she said sweetly:

"I won't be in danger if you're there to protect me."

Riku was speechless for quite some time. He didn't know what to say in response to that. Finally, he asked: "You-" he paused, having to clear his throat. He tried again: "You trust me that much?"

Namine nodded. "Of course I do!"

He slowly smiled, the thought warmed his heart. Namine smiled back at him.

"Alright," he said. "I guess you can tag along."

**xxx**

The world they arrived at was rather… different. It was dark, and for lack of better word, spooky. It was the dead of night, only light coming from the full moon that hung above them. It was Halloween Town.

"We stand out…" Namine said after a moment, looking at their surroundings. They were both wearing bright clothing, and so standing out in a dark world such as this wasn't hard. Riku shifted into Dark Mode. Namine looked at him with a dejected scowl. "I stand out…" she said.

Riku chuckled. "You'll be fine," he told her.

"Hello?" someone asked (said someone's name was Sally, but, as usual, they didn't know that.) "Who are you? I haven't seen you before…"

Riku was about to say something, when Namine spoke up:

"We're not really from around here…" she said slowly. "Do you think you could help us blend in a tad?"

Riku stared at her, suddenly regretting letting her tag along. Sally was very nice, however, and agreed to lend them a hand, almost instantly setting to work on putting something together for Namine to wear. Riku bit his tongue and went along with it, as he couldn't stop it now.

"My name is Sally," Sally said. "What are your names?"

"I'm Namine!"

"Riku" he muttered, not quite sure exactly how he felt about the entire situation. Half of him wanted to just get out of here, and continue searching for Sora. But, the other half of him, the STRONGER half of him, was content with staying here with Namine. If this was what she wanted to do… he just couldn't bring himself to say no.

"What brings you to Halloween Town?" Sally asked, sewing something together.

"We're looking for someone," Riku said, leaning up against a nearby wall. "Have you seen anyone new around here?"

Sally shook her head. "No one but you and the Heartless."

"The Heartless? When did they show up?"

"Not long ago now."

Riku scowled, not liking the idea of Heartless at all. They had been in most of the worlds he had visited, sure, but there were some where the Heartless hadn't reached yet. He glanced over at Namine, who was sitting patiently waiting for Sally to finish. If the Heartless were here, that meant Namine would be in danger.  _What am I worried about?_  he thought, taking a deep breath to calm himself.  _The heartless are no big deal. I can handle them. Can't let my guard down just because Namine's here…_

Namine and Sally were talking about something. What, exactly, Riku didn't know, as he had stopped paying attention.  _I wonder where Sora is…_ he thought.  _The idiot, I don't get what his problem is. I wish I could understand him sometimes._ He let out a breath.  _Dangit Sora! Where are you?_

He was pulled out of his thoughts quickly. "Finished!" Sally had announced, and now she and Namine were staring at him.

"What?" he asked, clueless. After a second it hit him. "Oh! I'll… go wait over there…" he turned and walked a couple yards away, and then sat down with his back facing them. He picked up a stick and began doodling in the dirt as he waited for Namine to change.

"You can look now," Namine called after a couple minutes.

"Finally," Riku muttered, standing up and turning around. Whatever annoyance that had bubbled up inside of him fell to the floor when he saw her. At first, he was shocked, as he had seen Namine wearing only one thing in his entire life. But then he slowly smiled as he got used to the change, and started liking it.

Her dress was plain, grey, and simple like her old dress, falling to about her knees. A tattered black witch's hat sat upon her head, and she now wore a pair of black boots. Small, pure white angel wings were attached to her back. "What do you think?" she asked, shuffling her feet nervously. "Is it okay?"

"You look wonderful," he said.

"Thank you," she smiled, blushing and glancing down at her toes.

A brief moment of silence passed.

"You two said you were looking for someone, right?" Sally asked.

They both nodded.

"Maybe you should ask Jack. He might know who you're looking for."

**xxx**

Sally led them to the town square. "Shh," Sally whispered as they entered. "They're rehearsing for this year's Halloween."

Riku and Namine exchanged glances, but remained silent and watched. Riku would glance over at Namine from time to time, still trying to get used to her change of clothes. It was different, but in a good way, and she looked nice.

"And now," the mayor announced. "Allow me to introduce the Master of Terror, King of Nightmares, Jack Skellington!"

Jack rose dramatically out of the well in the center of the square and then struck a pose. Namine looked at Riku, wondering what the heck was going on. He shrugged, a sort of "just go with it" gesture. He had learned to stop questioning the worlds he went to.

"Jack, that was wonderful!" Sally said, heading over.

"Why thank you, Sally," Jack said, jumping down off the well. He noticed Riku and Namine. "Ah! And who do we have here?"

"I'm Riku."

"Namine."

"Nice to meet you!"

"They said they were looking for someone," Sally explained. Riku and Namine both nodded in agreement.

"Yeah," Riku said. "He's got spiky brown hair, and wields a key-shaped blade. Have you seen him?"

"Now that you mention it…" Jack said slowly, scratching his head. "I think I have seen someone like that somewhere…"

"Where?" Riku asked, just as Namine asked: "When?"

Jack stood silent, thinking hard. "Yes!" he exclaimed after a moment. "I remember now! He showed up about the same time the Heartless did."

Both Riku's and Namine's eyes got wide. Riku looked angry, while Namine seemed more shocked. "I should have known," Riku muttered angrily. "Sora's siding with the Heartless. I  _knew_  something was up!"

Namine bit her lip, quite worried.  _Sora… what are you doing?_

"Is this Sora a friend of yours?" Jack asked.

Namine quickly nodded before Riku could say anything.

"Well, I'm sure it can't be that bad," Jack told them with a laugh.

 _That's what you think…_  Namine thought to herself. "Is Sora still here?" she asked aloud.

"Hmm," Jack scratched his head again, thinking. "I think I remember him leaving. He couldn't find whatever he was looking for, it seemed, and left in a hurry."

"Which means Kairi isn't here either…" Riku sighed. "We should probably head off then. No need to-" he paused, noticing a bunch of Heartless appear off to the side. "Nevermind," he muttered, drawing his blade. Everyone turned to see what he was looking at.

"Stay back!" Jack called, shooting a ball of fire at one Heartless, getting rid of it.

Riku jumped into battle.

"Stupid heartless," he muttered, hacking through a few Search Ghosts. He shot a Dark Firaga or two and then continued killing them with combos. Jack was of some help, killing off plenty of heartless with his magic.

"Stupid Sora," Riku muttered, slashing a few more heartless. "Why is it that I have to go around and clean up your messes? All I want, is to-"

"Riku!"

He turned on the spot. "Namine!" he gasped. He glared up at Oogie Boogie, who had a hold of her. "Let her go!" he shouted.

Oogie Boogie laughed manically. "Come and make me!" he taunted, before leaving, Namine in tow.

Riku's fists clenched as anger boiled up inside of him.

"Come on!" Jack said. "I know where we can find him!"

**xxx**

"Let go of me!" Namine screamed for what felt like the hundredth time, trying to pull herself out of Oogie Boogie's grasp. She finally managed, and ended up falling flat on her face. Her head immediately started hurting.

"You're more trouble than you're worth," Oogie said. "Maleficent better be rewarding me big time for this one. Finding one of her princesses and all."

 _Princess?_ Namine thought, slowly pushing herself into a sitting position.  _What in the worlds is he talking about?_

And as soon as she thought it, Riku (who had just entered the scene) asked the same exact thing. Except, he was demanding to know the answer from Oogie, instead of just wondering like she was. Oogie, however, gave no straight reply.

Namine tuned out by this point. It wasn't that she didn't  _want_  to listen to the conversation; something else had simply grabbed her attention. Her nose, which hurt like heck, was bleeding. She tried to wipe some of the blood away, though it didn't quite help. She quickly checked her forehead, which also hurt like heck, but was thankful to find that it wasn't bleeding.

She looked up, watching the intense battle for a second. Riku had, not surprisingly, started a fight, and was currently beating the crap out of Oogie Boogie. She sighed, again wiping her bloody nose. He was fighting. Because of her.

A small pang of guilt shot through her, accompanied with a sense of déjà vu. Something like this had happened before. Where someone she cared about had been fighting for her. Fighting when they didn't have to be. She looked up at the battle, and for a second saw Riku fighting someone else, and anger shot through her at that unknown person. The anger died down quickly though.

She rubbed her head, as subtle flashes of something close to memory rushed before her eyes. She winced, as she watched an odd, twisted battle take place. Well, that what she was seeing in her mind's eye.

The battle between Oogie and Riku ended, as did the warped memory in her head. However, there were still a couple other flashes of memory there. She continued rubbing her head, hoping they would stop.

"You okay?" Riku asked, kneeling down next to her.

At that, the memories stopped. But the pain didn't.

"My head…" she mumbled, looking up at him. His eyes widened at the sight of her nose and he bit his lip.

"Here," he said, handing her a potion. "Drink this."

"Better?" he asked when she was done. She nodded.

The pain was definitely gone. Namine wiped the blood away from her nose, actually managing to get it all this time. Riku reached out and squeezed her hand.

"You okay?" he asked again.

"I'm fine," she laughed. He smiled.

"Sora's obviously not here," Riku sighed. "We should head back to Traverse Town. Get some rest."

Namine nodded, allowing Riku to help her to her feet. She thought about mentioning the odd, twisted memories she had seen, but then thought against it. She didn't need to worry Riku anymore than she already had.


	14. Snarl of Memories

Finally, after making it to the right world, he found her in almost no time flat.

"Kairi," he whispered, running over to her. She sat up against some random wall, barely conscious. He knelt down next to her, gently placing a hand underneath her head. He sat there contemplating on whether or not he should wake her.

"Kairi," he said. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Sora?" she asked, sounding both relieved and surprised at the same time. "You're okay!"

He smiled. "I'm just glad  _you're_  okay! Took me forever to find you."

**xxx**

They stepped out of the Dark Corridor, Namine leaning against Riku for support, due to the headache returning. Flashes of those odd memories would come and go, rather quickly. She was looking forward to taking a nap, so the memories would just be dreams and hurt less. Riku paused though.

"Hang on…" he said, looking around. "This isn't Traverse Town…"

"Where are we?" Namine asked, voice tired.

"Twilight Town" Riku replied, reading a nearby sign.

"New world, huh?"

"I feel like I've been here before…" he said. "The memory's too faint though."

"Memory…" Namine whispered. In response to that, fuzzy images of the same town flickered at the back of her mind. The memories were quick and angry. She grimaced. The images she could handle. The pain that accompanied them… not so much.

Riku glanced over at Namine. "Come on," he said. "Let's get you back to Traverse Town."

"I'm fine," she mumbled, even though she didn't quite feel fine. "If this is a new world, we should look around, right?"

"I can come back," Riku told her. "You really need the rest."

Namine looked up, and then sighed. "Riku, it's going to have to wait."

"Hmm?" Riku asked, following her gaze. "Oh," he muttered, noticing what she had noticed. Or rather,  _who_  she had noticed. Yeah, sure, they were looking for Sora, but that didn't mean Riku was all too happy about running into him. Especially considering what had happened the past few times they had run into each other.

"Not happy to see me?" Sora asked. "Let me know if I'm getting in the way – you know, of something more important." He glanced over at Namine as he said the last part, a glare forming in his eyes.

Riku scowled. "Well, maybe it would be nice talking to you if you stopped yelling at me," he replied curtly. His voice was calm as he said this, but the anger inside of him was bubbling. "Do you think you can stand?" he asked Namine quietly. She nodded, and he let go of her. She stumbled for a second, but managed to stay standing. How, exactly, she wasn't sure, as the memories were getting quicker now.

"Is she alright?" Sora asked, the anger in his voice dropping a notch. He actually sounded worried.

"Just a headache," Namine replied before Riku could say anything. The memories flared up faster though, responding to Sora's change in tone. She squeezed her eyes shut, so she was only seeing the memories. It put less pain on her, as the memories and the real world stopped colliding together.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Riku asked, reaching out and squeezing her hand.

She nodded, though she instantly regretted it. She wouldn't be able to hold up much longer.

"Riku!" someone called. "Namine!"

Riku looked up, not believing his ears for a second. Namine dared to open her eyes, as the memories had started dying down.

"Kairi!" they both said at once. Kairi laughed, running up to them.

"It's good to see you guys!" she said. "I didn't know if you were okay or not!"

"Really?" Riku asked, turning to look at Sora. "You didn't tell her?"

"It slipped my mind…" Sora muttered lamely.

"You didn't even mention you had found her!" Riku said, voice rising slightly with anger. "Did you even stop to think about what would happen when you didn't say? We just would have started fighting again. And Kairi would have been worried sick!"

"Riku, really, it's-" Kairi started to say.

"You don't even sound happy that I found her," Sora said.

"I just don't get what your problem is," Riku said. "You storm out of the world we last met in, insisting that you would find Kairi on your own. Well, you found her. Now what? Can't we all go home?"

"Our home was destroyed!" Sora shouted.

"Yeah, thanks to you."

Namine, who had been taking small steps away from the group while Sora and Riku were arguing, slowly sat down. The more Sora and Riku fought, the more frantic the memories would get. She rubbed her head. The memories she were seeing were of Sora and Riku fighting, and they were quite confusing.

"You okay?" Kairi asked, sitting down next to her.

"Just a headache," Namine replied again.

"How long have they been fighting like this?" Kairi asked, lowering her voice.

"Awhile," Namine said. "Sora's got it in his head that Riku doesn't care about anyone but me."

"That's ridiculous!" Kairi laughed. "I mean, I know Riku cares about you more, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't care at all."

"Try telling Sora that…" Namine whispered. The memories were a bit less frantic now, but she was definitely more tired.

"Sora!" Kairi gasped suddenly. Sora had drawn his Keyblade on Riku.

"You'd rather fight me?" Riku shouted. "What good's that gonna do for you?" He glared at Sora, though his eyes darted to the Keyblade for a second. The cracks in it had gotten worse. Instead of just one, there were about three, all in different sections of the blade. "I thought we were friends!"

"Please, Riku, when have you ever cared about me?"

The memories flared up inside Namine as Sora said that. Flashes of battle, and Sora and Riku arguing. They were quicker. And now voices accompanied the memories. They were hard to make out, but soon they were a deafening roar in her ears. She gasped, clutching her head in pain. "Stop…" she muttered, but who she was talking to was unclear.

"Riku!" Kairi shouted.

Riku turned, as did Sora. Sora's Keyblade vanished from his hand, as Riku rushed over to Namine.

"You are not alright," he muttered, picking her up. "We're going back to Traverse Town. Now."

"No," Namine whispered. "I'm fine…"

Kairi turned to Sora. "Are you coming?" she asked. He didn't respond.

"Wait!" Namine cried, as Riku opened a Dark Corridor. She turned and looked at Kairi, frantic. "Kairi, you need to stay with Sora. Please! And I'm sorry-"

Riku had stepped through the Dark Corridor by this point, and it closed behind them.

"I wasn't… done…" Namine whispered, now sounding more tired than ever.

"You need to rest," Riku told her, setting her down on her bed in the room Leon had provided her.


	15. Sea of Guilt

"'I'm sorry…'" Kairi muttered, thinking over Namine's words. "What does she mean by that?" She turned to Sora. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

Sora paused, his stomach churning. Technically, it was  _him_  that didn't care, even though he had been accusing Riku of it this entire time. But now, he actually felt bad, and was worried too. "Riku'll take good care of her," he said after a moment.

"Yeah, that's true," Kairi laughed. She had, however, heard the slight edge in Sora's voice, and her smile fell. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

"Of course!" Sora said, rather quickly.

Kairi eyed him suspiciously, only half believing him. There was something different about the tone of his voice. He sounded almost… bitter, as opposed to the carefree and slightly clueless attitude he normally had. Her eyes narrowed with worry. "Why are you and Riku fighting?" she asked quietly.

Sora, who had been trying to appear carefree as he usually was, gave up the act, and his eyes formed a glare. "I'm sick of him always telling me what to do…" he muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Kairi asked, confused. She thought back over what had just happened in the past ten or so minutes. She couldn't remember much of Sora and Riku's argument, as she had been worrying about Namine. But then, she remembered something. As Riku and Namine were leaving, Sora had remained silent. He had just stood there, staring at them  _glaring_ at them.

 _"Sora's got it in his head that Riku doesn't care about anyone but me,"_  Namine had said.

Kairi swallowed, the realization slowly sneaking up on her.  _When did this start?_  she asked herself. Her mind flitted back over those last few das on the islands. Sora had been so distant, so confused. Now…

She looked up at him. He didn't look confused now. He seemed so sure.

Something had changed.

"Sora…" she whispered.

He turned away from her. Something about how she ha looked at him just then… it hurt him. His heart suddenly ached, and his mind was thrown into turmoil.

He wanted to be better than Riku.

He wanted to go back home.

And, to do both, he had to help Maleficent gain access Kingdom Hearts.

At least, that was what the darkness inside of him was telling him. It was screaming at him, telling him that; yes! This was the right way to do things.

But the light inside him was telling him otherwise. His light, which his darkness had been suppressing for a while now, had risen up inside of him suddenly, and it was telling him that he was wrong.

But he wasn't listening. He was so mad at Riku, so sick of being the weaker one. And with these thoughts sprouting back up in him, the darkness was able to get a foothold in his heart once again. And it was smarter this time, going about it in a way that Kairi wouldn't notice. Because the darkness knew, that if Kairi noticed, Sora would be harder to hold onto.

Before, the darkness had taken the form of angry confusion. A confused Sora was easier to goad into fighting. However, the bitterness that came with that threw Kairi off, and if Kairi knew something was up, she could easily talk some sense into Sora. So, this time, the darkness took the form of a cocky confidence. All though that was a confidence that didn't quite belong in Sora, it was at least more believable, and would hopefully fool Kairi.

"C'mon," Sora said, a grin spreading across his face. "I'll take you to where we're staying until we can go home."

"Where is that?" Kairi asked slowly. Sora's sudden change in personality had thrown her off, but she was happy to see that normal upbeat attitude of his. Though, something didn't seem quite right…

"You'll see!" Sora laughed, excitement growing in his eyes.

**xxx**

She was restless, the warped memories invading her every thought. She slept, but the dreams were terrible. She awoke, only once, searching for her sketchbook, which upon finding she had opened to a blank page and drawn a frantic picture, before falling back asleep. Riku hadn't noticed. He had dozed off in a chair in the corner of the room.

He was only half asleep, mind fretting over just about everything. Memories would rush back with these worries, making it seem like one long dream

_"You're not the one who's supposed to protect Namine!" he shouted. "It's supposed to be me!"_

He was worried, so worried about her. But until she woke up, he couldn't do anything. And it was killing him, watching her hurt without being able to do anything about it.

 _I told her… not to come…_ he thought to himself.  _This is all my fault… I should have pressed harder to get her home sooner._

His mind wandered again, plunging itself into his memories.

_"I'm sorry…"Namine said, looking down._

_"Don't be! It's not your fault" he told her._

_The scene changed, he was standing in Twilight Town, as the scene from a few hours ago played out._

_"Let me know if I'm getting in the way – you know, of something more important" Sora had said._

_He wasn't sure what had kept him from attacking right then and there. He assumed, though, that the fact Namine had been leaning on him was part of it._

And how had he not seen it? The way she nearly fell when she tried to stand, how she kept complaining that her head hurt. He  _knew_  it had been more than a headache. And yet, somehow, he ignored it, even when she had to sit down. She hadn't been alright in Halloween Town, and she wasn't alright then.

_And she's not alright now…_

_Back into his memories his mind did plunge._

_"Is Namine here?" he had demanded, countless times from the Organization members at Castle Oblivion. All of that, just to find her, on the slim chance…_

_"Do you know where I could find her?" he had asked, countless times upon his arrival at Traverse Town. He had to find her, to make sure she was safe._

_And yet, he had still let her come._

_"I won't be in danger if you're there to protect me," she had said._

_And he had believed her._

_But he was wrong. He couldn't protect her from everything. He couldn't protect her from her own mind, and whatever it was doing to her. There was nothing he could do to stop that._

He blinked his eyes open, almost frantically.

"Dozed off…" he muttered to himself, before looking over at Namine. She was still asleep, though it wasn't peaceful at all. She was tossing and turning, muttering thing under her breath. He watched for a second, sorrow in his eyes, before deciding something.

He got up, dragging the chair behind him, and placed the chair next to her bed. He sat down, hoping that maybe being closer to her would calm her down. He grabbed her hand in is, squeezing it gently.

"It's alright," he told her. "I'm right here."

It didn't matter whether or not he could save her from the torment inside her own head. All that mattered was that he was there with her, so he could comfort her. She would find her own way out of it, and he would be here waiting when she did.


	16. Heartfelt

Namine moved suddenly, startling Riku. She had gone into a state of peace a couple minutes ago and had stayed that way up till now. Riku looked over at her, and smiled when he found that she was awake. She looked up at him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, worry in his voice.

"Better," she said, sitting up. She rubbed her head, slightly out of habit, as she had been doing so for the past… while. The memories were gone, for the moment, though there was still a dull throb at the back of her mind. She started to move her hand, only to find it was still in Riku's.

He started to let go, but she held on, clutching his hand tightly.

"How long have I been out?" she asked.

"Maybe twelve hours."

"And… you've been here this entire time?"

He nodded.

She turned away, letting go of his hand. "You shouldn't have-"

"I wasn't going to leave you," he said, before she could even finish. "I couldn't."

"But what about Sora?"

Riku bit his tongue. "Sora's a big boy," he said after a moment. "He can take care of himself."

"And Kairi-"

"Is with Sora. You know Sora's not going to let anything bad happen to her."

"But what if-"

Riku grabbed her hand again. "Listen," he said quietly. "I know you're worried about them. But maybe you're worrying too much. You need to take a moment and calm down. You'll worry yourself into another headache."

She shook her head. "I didn't worry myself into the headache."

"Then what happened?"

She paused a second, trying to figure out to put the odd memories into words. The blasted things started up again at just the thought, though it wasn't nearly as bad as before. She clutched her head, trying to make them stop.

Riku watched, worry in his eyes. "It's happening again, isn't it?"

"I keep seeing these… things. Like, memories, but they aren't memories. Not my memories, anyways. At least, I don't think so. Sometimes, I think I'm in them, and yet sometimes… it's like… like I'm not even there. I don't know what they are. But they're just… there. Usually, they're only in my dreams. But occasionally, I'll just close my eyes, and one of them will play." She reached over, grabbing her sketchbook.

"It's not just the memories. I've been drawing weird things too." She opened up to one of the pictures that she couldn't remember drawing. "Some of them, I can't even remember drawing. Like this one, for example." She passed the sketchbook to Riku. He took one look at the picture and then gasped in shock.

It was him. Not just him, but him lying on the floor, lightning cackling around his body. His blade had spun off to the side.

"That's- That's-" he gasped. He didn't want to finish that sentence. But that was when Larxene had knocked him aside after he had attacked her, right before his memories were rewritten. "That's one of my… memories" he said finally.

"But why am I drawing your memories?" she asked.

He paused, not saying anything for a second. "How long has this been happening?"

"A while now…" Namine replied slowly. "But yesterday was the worst. It's never been that bad before.  _Never._  They started just going past my eyes, colliding with what I was seeing in real life. It wasn't bad at first, and I thought I'd be okay. But then- then-" She took a deep, shaky breath, as if trying to hold back tears. "Then you and Sora started fighting, and they just started getting more frantic. More confusing. I saw the two of you fighting, but it was different. Not just the two of you arguing, but like, actually fighting. And it hurt-" She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes.

Riku swallowed, trying to do his best not to freak out. He hesitated a moment, unsure of what exactly to do. He gently squeezed her hand. "Hey, it's okay" he said. "You're alright. You'll get through this eventually."

"I know," she whispered, wiping her tears away. "I just feel bad…"

"What for?" Riku laughed. "If anyone needs to feel bad, it's me…" he trailed off, not wanting to continue. But he had already started, and this might be his best chance to say it. Namine watched him, curiously.

"I think I know why you've been drawing and seeing my memories…" he said slowly. "Remember that time, forever ago, when I brought you back from Castle Oblivion, and you had asked me why you couldn't remember anything?"

"Yeah, and you said you didn't know."

He turned away, just the fact that she remembered it so well hurt him.

"I lied," he whispered. "I did know. I just- I didn't tell you, because- because I didn't want to hurt you. I knew how much my own truth had hurt me, and I didn't want you to hurt like I did. I probably just made it worse though."

He sighed, closing his eyes. It was about time he just said it. "You're a replica, created without any memories. I sort of killed Vexen before he had the time to give you any." He didn't dare look at her.

"Replica?" she asked, very quiet. "So that means… none of this has been real…?" Her hand twitched inside of his, almost as if that's what she was asking about.

"Wait," Riku said, looking up at her. "No! That's not true at all. This is real! More real than my life has ever been. And, even if it wasn't real," he scratched his head, feeling slightly embarrassed. "I'd take it over any real life I could have."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Riku said. "And even if we aren't technically real, we've still got hearts."

"We?"

"Oh," Riku chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sort of a replica too."

"Oh, I suppose that makes sense…" Namine muttered. Something occurred to her, and she asked: "Is there a 'Real' Riku?"

"Not here…" Riku replied slowly. Upon Namine's look growing even more confused, he explained. "To put it simply, I lived in a parallel universe, and then I was given the chance to live a life without being in the shadow of the Real Riku, and then I was dumped here." Namine just stared at him. "My past is really complicated…" he muttered.

"So it seems," Namine laughed, flipping through her sketchbook. "What about my dreams though? How is it that I'm seeing your memories?"

"I'm not quite sure," Riku said, with a shrug. "It had something to do with the fact you were created  _from_  my memories, and that my memories could start leaking. Whatever that meant."

"I think we found out," Namine whispered.

"Oh, right," Riku laughed. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. "How's your head?"

"Better," she replied. "Much better."

"Good," he whispered.

A moment passed.

"Hmm?" Riku said, noticing the picture her sketchbook was open to. "That's funny, this looks exactly like a world I went to the other day."

"It probably is," Namine said. "These are the other odd pictures I've been drawing. I just- I have this feeling that I'm drawing whatever you happen to be seeing at the time. I don't how I know that, let alone  _why_ I'm doing it."

Riku smiled to himself, and then asked: "So first you're drawing my memories, and now you're drawing what I see as I explore the Worlds… I can't keep anything from you can I?" He laughed after saying this.

Namine laughed too, and then turned the page. Their laughter stopped and they both winced at the sight of the next picture. In this one, Larxene was holding Riku by the scruff of his neck, about two feet off the ground.

"I… honestly don't remember this one…" Riku muttered. "But I'm not surprised that it happened."

Namine looked up at him, and then down at the picture. "Who is that?" she asked after a moment.

"That's Larxene," Riku replied.

Namine flipped to another picture. "And this?" she asked, pointing.

Riku chuckled, but answered her question. They sat there for at least an hour, as he named people and explained what was going on in each of the drawings. Namine listened intently, wincing and gasping often. Riku smiled slightly every time she did, because her timing was perfect.

Eventually, he explained every picture she had questions about, explaining a good portion of his past while he was at it. Not all of his past, but a lot of it.

"You're past was horrible…" Namine whispered after a moment, fingering the edges of her sketchbook.

Riku took a second to think about that. "I think it all worked out for the better, though," he said finally.

"You think so?"

"I know so," he said, running a hand through her hair. "Because, you know, if my life hadn't have sucked so bad, I wouldn't have needed a second chance. And if I hadn't have needed a second chance, I would have never come here, and then you wouldn't exist."

"Oh," Namine laughed. "I suppose it did work out then."

"Yup," Riku said with a smile.


	17. Haunted

They walked quietly around Hollow Bastion; Sora was still trying to show Kairi around. They said very little, except Sora explaining things. Kairi just walked along, trying very hard to act like she was interested. It's not that she wasn't or anything, she was just a bit preoccupied at the moment.

Something wasn't right with Sora… she couldn't place her finger on  _what_  exactly was wrong with him. After his… change… in Twilight Town… it was harder to place what was wrong. It had been staring her in the face then, but she hadn't been looking for it, and now that she was… it seemed as if it was running away from her.

They stopped in the entrance hall, where they had started. Sora shuffled his feet nervously. Kairi felt that she should say something, but wasn't sure as to what. So she just stood there, and said nothing. Sora scratched the back of his head, unsure of what to say also.

"You know," Kairi said suddenly, if only to break the awkward silence that was creeping up on them. "I feel like I've been here before."

"Really?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, just-" she sighed, not sure where she was headed with that. "Just… nothing…" she muttered.

"Okay," Sora said slowly, but decided not to press the matter further. There was a sudden flash of lightning and loud clap of thunder, accompanied but a roar of rain hitting the ground. "Storm finally started," Sora mused. The clouds had been forming in the sky for a while now.

They lapsed into a silence again. Kairi made her way over to the fountain and sat down, lost in her thoughts. Sora watched her curiously. Kairi had been so… distant since their arrival at Hollow Bastion. He couldn't help wondering: what was on her mind?

He slowly walked over and sat down next to her. "Hey, what's on your mind?"

"I'm just…" she said slowly, shuffling her feet nervously. "I'm- I'm worried about you, Sora."

"What?" he laughed, as if he had no idea what she was talking about. "Why?"

"I- there's-" Kairi paused, trying to word it. "There's something off about you Sora. And it's bothering me… and I can't place what it is…"

"I have no idea what your talking about" Sora laughed, though it was a bit more nervous. The darkness was frantically scrabbling to keep a hold of him, as his worry for Kairi was pushing it down.

The darkness, however, was growing smarter by the minute. In no time, it had a hold of Sora again, and this time it was using his worry for Kairi against him. He slowly reached out and grabbed her hand. "Listen Kairi, I know you're worried about me, but I'm fine. Trust me."

She believed him. Just a little, anyways. There was something about… just the way he said it. And it made her want to believe him, even though a good portion of her was telling her not to. "Sora… I'm scared…" she whispered.

"Don't worry," he said, gently cupping her cheek in his hand. "I won't let anything hurt you. Promise."

She stared at him, and slowly did her best to smile. But it was hard. Even if she knew that he was going to try hard to keep that promise, she knew…

She turned away, not wanting to admit it. But it was staring her in the face.

She wasn't just scared in general, about all that was going on. Sure, she found Hollow Bastion rather creepy, and some of the heartless around here were… scary. But that's not what she was worried about. She was worried about him. She was scared for  _him_.

She could see it. And even if she didn't want to admit it, she knew he was only steps away from falling into darkness.

"C'mon, let's go," Sora said, standing up. "I'm getting hungry."

Kairi couldn't help chuckle at this. Apparently, some things about Sora would never change. Tears formed her eyes and her smile slowly fell.

 _But YOU'RE changing, Sora,_ she thought.  _And I don't like who you're becoming._


	18. Big Mistake

"I can tell you're worried about him."

"Wha-" Kairi asked, sitting up straighter and glancing around. In the corner of her room stood a man in a black cloak. "Who are you?"

"Aren't you curious as to what Sora's up to at the moment?" the cloaked man asked.

"No," Kairi said, rather quickly. She knew he was off on an "errand" but didn't want to think much past that. She knew the errand probably involved Heartless and was just going to draw Sora closer to the darkness. Of course she was worried, but she didn't need some random stranger bothering her about it.

"What a shame, because, if you where, I could-" the cloaked man shook his head. "No, you aren't interested."

"What?" Kairi asked.

"You said you weren't interested," the cloaked figure shrugged.

"No, what?"

"Well, if you wish, I can show you what he's up to."

Kairi stared at the cloaked man, and slowly hugged her knees to her chest. Did she want that? Did she really want to see what Sora was doing? No, that wasn't the question. The question was; did she want to watch him fall into darkness? No, she didn't. But, maybe… maybe he wouldn't be. And it was probably that slim hope that made her say yes.

The cloaked man pulled a computer out of, well, Kairi assumed his pocket. But the computer was rather large, and how it could fit into anyone's pocket was a mystery. In no time, the computer was set up, and an image flickered to life on the screen.

"Sora," Kairi whispered. The scene before her was one she didn't like. Sora stood in a world, surrounded by Heartless. Heartless that weren't attacking him. They just stood there, patient, calm. The sound of dying Heartless came from off screen, and then Riku stepped into view.

He held his blade tensely at his side, glaring at Sora.

"Riku," Sora said, simply.

"Sora," Riku replied, with nearly the same inflection. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Sora asked, voice starting to rise with anger. "I'm trying to find a way back home."

Riku scoffed. "And destroying a bunch of other worlds is helping you  _how_ , exactly?"

"I'm not destroying-"

"You're letting the Heartless in. That might as well be destroying a world."

Sora tensed.

Kairi tensed also, clenching her fists. She was silently hoping Riku would be able to talk some sense into Sora. She wouldn't give up hope yet.

"Sure, just go ahead and start bossing me around," Sora muttered, looking away.

"Sora, stop it!" Riku called. "You're being ridiculous! I'm not-" he stopped, jumping back. Sora's blade came crashing down right where he had been standing. He turned, readying his blade. "So it's a fight you want?"

"No!" Kairi gasped.

Sora said nothing. He turned, readying his own blade.

"Let me tell you, Sora," Riku said, not one hint of laughter in his voice. He was dead serious. "You're making a big mistake."

"Sora!" Kairi shouted, as the two boys leapt into battle. The screen flickered to black. She turned to glare at the cloaked man, who laughed.

"So, do you still have hope left for your 'hero'?" He spat out the last word as if it were poison, before disappearing. The computer disappeared with him.

"No, Sora," Kairi whispered, a tear slowly rolling down her cheek. "There's got to still be light left in you. There has to be!" she angrily pounded her fist down next to her, before breaking down into tears. Her hope was fading fast.

**xxx**

"So, I was trying to knock some sense into Sora, when he pulled his blade on me!" Riku was explaining to Namine. They sat in her room, him in the chair and her on the bed, as had become their norm for some reason. "And I was all like: 'That's a bad idea,' but he didn't listen, and attacked anyways. So we fought, and—" he was cut off by the unmistakable sound of a dark corridor opening. They both looked up.

"Vexen?" Namine asked. The word sounded odd in her mouth, as she had used it rarely. She had only learned the name yesterday.

"Replica…" Riku said slowly. "What number are you?" he asked.

"37," the Vexen replica replied, giving them a mock bow. Riku's eyes narrowed. There was something he didn't like about this one. He didn't know what…

"I have just visited your friend, Kairi," 37 said.

"Kairi!" Namine exclaimed. "Where is she? Is she alright?"

37 chuckled darkly. Riku clenched his hand into a fist, fingers itching slightly to summon his blade. 37 definitely wasn't giving him a good first impression.

"I suppose you could say she is alright…"

"What does that mean?" Riku spat. He was starting to get annoyed.

37 looked at Riku, eyebrows raised with interest. "Ah, you must be Riku. I have heard much about you."

"I'll bet you have," Riku sneered.

"However, you are more… feisty than reports would indicate…" 37 mused. "I shall try my best to avoid getting on your bad side."

"Hmph," Riku said. "You might want to start trying harder."

37 smiled. His eyes wandered over to Namine, and widened with interest. "And here we have Namine, the un-catalogued replica. Did the memories stay in place properly? I heard we had issues about that."

"Leave her be!" Riku shouted, jumping to his feet. The air around his fist sparked with unused energy, as he was still debating on whether or not to summon his blade. His body was performing the action readily, he just hadn't put his mind into it yet.

37 couldn't have looked more excited. "So the stories are true!" he laughed. "I thought they were exaggerating. Time to report back to headquarters, I think I've gathered enough data." He opened up a dark corridor behind him, slowly backing into it. He paused about halfway. "I will warn you, though," he glanced at each of them in turn. "We replicas need to be careful about what side we choose. I hope you choose the right one." And with one more step backward, he was gone.

Riku growled, the energy in his hand slowly fizzling out of existence. Namine glanced up at him, worried, but she didn't say anything for a second.

"What did he mean by that?" she asked. "Choosing the right side?"

Riku shrugged, shaking his head. "Not a clue," he muttered.


	19. Shattered

Riku glanced around. He was on a… pirate ship. "Of all things…" he muttered. A few Heartless appeared around him. He glanced at them for a second, before looking up. Not surprisingly, he found Sora standing there.

"Riku," Sora muttered. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Still causing trouble, are you?" Riku asked.

"No," Sora replied, rather quickly.

"Still tense about me kicking your butt yesterday, I see," Riku laughed. He paused, noticing that more heartless had appeared. "What's with the Heartless?" he asked, curious as to why they hadn't attacked him yet. Usually, the Heartless weren't this… calm. "Hang on, are they  _listening_ to you?" He stared at Sora in disbelief, and slightly in disgust. "Idiot! They're going to-"

"Just stay out of this," Sora muttered.

"But the darkness is going to destroy you!" Riku shouted

"Since when do you care?"

"Sora!"

"Look, why don't you just- just go back to wherever it is you're staying," Sora said, shooting a glare Riku's way.

Riku winced. That was a slightly hurtful demand. "Fine," he muttered. "If that's what you want…" He slowly opened up a dark corridor.

Sora watched out of the corner of his eye, and slowly raised his hand and attempted to open a dark corridor himself. A bit of darkness formed at his fingertips for a second.

"What are you doing?" Riku asked, breaking his concentration.

Sora lowered his hand. "I thought you were leaving," he snapped coldly over his shoulder.

Riku frowned, and then got an idea. "Give me a second," he said, mostly to himself, before disappearing.

 _How does he do that?_ Sora thought, trying again to open a corridor. Again what could have been the start of one appeared at his fingertips, but it fizzled out of existence before getting anywhere. Sora grunted in frustration.

 _Maybe I'm not trying hard enough,_  he thought, and then tried again, this time focusing harder on tapping into the darkness inside him. The darkness shot through him like fire, and the dark corridor got farther in opening. But then a wave of pain shot through him. Sora gasped, and the dark corridor disappeared.

"Hey, Sora!" Riku said, in a much lighter tone as he stepped out of a dark corridor. He paused, noticing that Sora was in pain. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Sora snapped, trying to recover. "Why'd you come back?"

"Are you sure that you're okay?"

"Why'd you come back?" Sora repeated angrily. The pain had mostly died down by now, but it had definitely made him more annoyed.

"Well I thought I could start this conversation again, you know, on a lighter note," Riku explained. "We really shouldn't be fighting, Sora, and-" he sighed.  _I can't believe I'm going to say this,_ he thought to himself, and then continued: "I'm sorry I teased you about me beating you yesterday."

"Save your apologies!" Sora said, waving a hand to keep the restless heartless in check. He gasped as another wave of pain shot through him, and doubled over, clutching his side.

"Sora, are-"

"I've already told you, I'm  _fine_ ," Sora gasped, before Riku could even get the question out. He stood there, breath short, doing his best to recover, and recover quickly. Riku watched, slightly worried. Something wasn't right.

Sora glared at Riku, mind spinning, heart aching. He was confused, and angry, and the pain wasn't helping one bit. Eventually, it all became too much for him, and he blurted: "I don't get it, Riku! How is it that you can use the darkness without it hurting you, and when I try-" he winced, another wave of pain hitting him.

For some reason, Riku laughed in response to that question. And then, slightly angry, but mostly amused, he explained: "Sora, I'm pure data—that's what a replica  _is_. I'm  _data_. My mind, my body, my heart, the darkness  _in_ my heart—it's all  _data_. I don't think I could change it if I tried, okay? I didn't get a choice in the matter. Nothing about me is even  _real_. You, Sora, however,  _are._ You're real and so is the darkness  _inside_ of you. And, from the looks of things, it's eating you from the inside out."

Sora stared at Riku, still gasping for air. He wasn't sure if Riku was kidding or not.

"I'm dead serious, Sora," Riku said, as if he could tell. "Do you think I'd lie about something like that?"

Sora grunted. "No," he admitted after a moment.

"Exactly."

"But what makes me different? Why is it that I can't use the darkness?"

Riku shrugged. "Sora, I don't think you were ever  _meant_  to use the darkness. Your heart… it's full of so much light, the darkness just- destroys that."

Anger flared up inside Sora. "So now you know me better than I do?"

"What?" Riku asked. Then he realized what he had said and gasped. "Wait! No! I didn't mean that!"

"I think I would know my own heart, Riku."

"Sora! I swear, I didn't mean-" Riku said frantically.

"Save your excuses," Sora scoffed. "I'm sick of you pretending like you know everything!"

"I'm not-" Riku shouted, and then growled. "STOP IT SORA!" he shouted. "You are  _ridiculous!_ "

"Oh, so now I'm ridiculous, huh?" Sora asked, annoyed.

"Drop it Sora! You know that's not what I meant."

"Of course not," Sora muttered, slightly sarcastic.

"Now you're being unreasonable!" Riku shouted.

Sora shook his head, fists clenched in anger. "I'm done," he muttered, before trying to open up a dark corridor, and succeeding this time. The darkness in his heart was currently dominant, so it did little against him.

"Sora!" Riku called, trying to calm himself down. Sora wasn't listening, he had gotten the corridor open, he should use it. And with only a moment's hesitation, he was gone.

"Sora…" Riku groaned, unsure if he was angry or worried or just plain annoyed.


	20. Just out of Reach

Namine was currently examining one of her more recent drawings. Pictures of Sora and Kairi had interrupted her nearly constant drawings of Riku. And although she was slightly relieved at the change, some of the pictures she had drawn worried her. As crazy as it would sound, her pictures had a nasty habit of predicting what was to come.

She had drawn Sora, falling, into darkness. Kairi stood in the light, reaching out to him, trying to grab a hold of his outstretched hand.

 _I sure hope Kairi's alright…_  Namine thought. She had been worried about the two of them since they had run into each other in Twilight Town. Sora's behavior was off, and she wasn't sure how well Kairi was handling the difference.

 _I wish I could go talk to her,_  Namine thought, and then laughed.  _I don't even know where Kairi is, let alone how to get there._

She flipped to a different picture that she had drawn a couple of hours ago. It was a castle. And as she looked at the picture, the name of the castle drifted into her head.

Hollow Bastion.

How she knew that, she did not know. But she had a feeling that she needed to go there.

"How does Riku do it?" she wondered, slowly reaching out with the intent of opening a dark corridor. A bit of darkness sparked at her fingertips and she gasped, pulling back. She tried again, but got no farther. She grimaced, and slightly flustered, tried one last time. The dark corridor opened this time, shocking her.

"Cool," she said after a moment, grinning.

**xxx**

"Kairi!"

She looked up, and was surprised to find Namine stepping out of a dark corridor. "Namine?"

Namine laughed, closing the dark corridor. "I'm so glad that worked!" she muttered, mainly to herself. She had originally been worried that she would step out into the wrong world, and at a bad time. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and then glanced over at Kairi.

"You're okay!" Kairi said. The last time she had seen Namine, Namine had  _not_  been okay. "What happened back there, anyways?"

Namine made a face, thinking hard. She still hadn't figured out how to describe the memory meltdown. "Umm… I don't know how to describe it exactly… but it's like I'm being attacked by memories."

"Hmm, I think a similar thing happened to Riku…"

"Really?"

Kairi nodded, clearly remembering the first month Riku spent on the islands. "However," she muttered, "I don't think it was ever as serious as what happened to you."

"He never mentioned…" Namine mused, finding a place to sit down.

"He probably didn't feel he needed to," Kairi said with a shrug. "He has a nasty habit of not mentioning things unless he has to."

Namine laughed. "Yeah, I suppose he does. He failed to mention that I was a replica until I asked."

"You're a replica?" Kairi asked, sounding rather shocked. "I mean, I suppose it makes sense… but still, Riku never-"

"Never said," Namine finished, smiling. "He mentioned something about not wanting to hurt me, but I don't quite get why."

"He took remembering the fact he was a replica very harshly," Kairi explained. "I guess he thought maybe you would take it the same way."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Namine laughed. "Riku tends to do things like that."

"But-" Kairi began, a bit unsure, but continued nevertheless. "Don't you think Riku's, I don't know, a tad-"

"Overprotective?" Namine finished, laughing. "He totally is."

"And you don't mind?"

Namine shook her head. "Nah, not really. I think it's kind of sweet. Besides, I think I'd break his heart if I said that I minded…" She grimaced, not liking that thought at all.

Kairi eyed her, and then shrugged.

“Anyway!” Namine said, brightly. “What about you? How are things here…?” She trailed off, as Kairi’s face scrunched up.

“They’re fine, I guess?” Kairi answered. “Sora’s just being. Ugh! I don't know what's gotten into him. He's steps away from falling into darkness, and he doesn't even realize it."

"Have you tried talking to him about it?" Namine asked.

"Yeah," Kairi replied, bitterly. "He just pushes the matter aside every time I ask him what's wrong."

Namine bit her lip, thinking about it. "Maybe you need to try and ask him something else. He may not realize that anything's wrong."

"Maybe…"

"Where is he now, anyways?"

Kairi shrugged. "Off in some world."

"Well, try and talk to him when he gets back."

"I don't know…" Kairi muttered.

"Kairi, you've gotta try!" Namine said. "You need to stop trying to talk to his darkness, and try and get through to his light. His light will listen to you, if you call to it loud enough."

"You think so?" Kairi asked, lightening up a bit.

Namine nodded, even though she really had no idea. The words had just popped out of her mouth, but she was going to go with them.

"Alright," Kairi said. "I'll talk to him when he gets back."

"Okay, cool," Namine said, standing up. "I should get going. Riku'll probably be back in Traverse Town soon…" She chuckled, and then reached out to open a dark corridor. It didn't quite work, and she scowled. Kairi laughed.

"I'm new to this," Namine muttered, and tried again. She got results this time. "See ya!" she called, stepping through.

**xxx**

She knocked nervously on his door. "Sora, are you in there?"

"Yeah," came the slightly muffled response.

"Can I come in?" Kairi asked, slowly opening the door. Sora sat in total darkness. "Sora? Why are you in the dark? Maybe you should turn on the light-" Kairi paused, for as soon as she turned on the light, Sora winced and retreated farther back into the corner he was sitting in.

"Sora…"

"Hey," he muttered. His voice cracked slightly as he said it. Kairi bit her lip. After a moment of thinking, she walked over and sat down on the edge of his bed.

"How'd it go?" she asked quietly.

"Fine, I guess," he muttered. He refused to make eye contact with her. The darkness inside of him was restless with Kairi here. He gasped, a sudden wave of pain shooting through him.

"Sora!" Kairi gasped.

"I'm fine," Sora wheezed, clutching his chest.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded, quickly managing to recover. "Yeah, it was nothing," he said.

"It- didn't…" Kairi sighed. She had no idea what to say. Namine had told her to call out to his light, but she wasn't quite sure how to do that. Suddenly, almost on impulse, she reached out and grabbed his hand. He looked up at her, and his eyes softened.

"Are you scared?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," he managed to reply, his light for once in control. "Kairi, I-" He gasped and turned away, his darkness threatening to take control again.

She squeezed his hand. "Sora," she whispered. "You know you don't have to do this, right?"

"I know- I just-" He winced, another wave of pain shooting through him as his darkness took control again. He shuddered, and Kairi watched worriedly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"No, I'm fine," he said, rather quickly.

Kairi sighed. For a second she had gotten through to him. But his darkness was too strong. His light was still there, she knew it, but it was out of reach. "Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'm fine! Stop worrying about me!"

Kairi was taken aback. She stared at him in shock for a second, and then turned away. "Okay…" she whispered, standing up and letting go of his hand. "But if you do want to talk about it, I'll listen."

He nodded roughly, looking anywhere but at her.

"See ya," she muttered, leaving.


	21. Finding What's Right

He didn't have enough time to take in his surroundings. All he managed to notice was that the world was  _very_  sandy, before his attention was drawn elsewhere. A girl, who looked suspiciously like royalty, was bound. And standing next to her was Sora. Next to Sora stood a man named Jafar. How Riku knew the name, he wasn't sure, and he didn't really care. Next to Jafar hovered a Genie.

"Sora!" Riku shouted. "What the heck are you doing!"

"Oh look, trouble," Sora muttered, glaring at Riku. He turned to Jafar. "I should take the princess and go, before-"

"Jafar!" someone shouted, running into the room. "Let Jasmine go!"

"Aladdin!" the girl, who Riku assumed was Jasmine, shouted. Riku turned to the boy who had entered the room, who he quickly assumed to be Aladdin.

The distinct sound of a dark corridor opening caught his attention, and Riku turned, finding that Sora was dragging Jasmine off. Anger bubbled up inside him and he took of at a dead run to catch Sora. Sora reached the dark corridor first, and stepped through. Riku quickly thrust a hand in it to keep it open, and was about to step through, when he stopped.

"Genie! Help Jasmine! Please!" Aladdin shouted desperately, looking at the Genie.

"Too bad, street rat!" Jafar sneered. " _I'm_  the Genie's master now."

"Genie…" Aladdin said.

"Sorry, Al," Genie muttered. "But the one with the lamp calls the shots."

"Lamp…" Riku mused. His eyes darted to the lamp, which Jafar held. He closed his eyes and sighed, knowing he was going to regret doing this later. He withdrew his hand from the dark corridor, which closed instantly. He pulled out his blade and attacked Jafar, making a sad attempt to grab the lamp. He wasn't really trying though.

"Genie! Stop him!" Jafar commanded.

Riku quickly rolled out of the way of a lightning bolt that nearly hit him, and then quickly dodged a large amount of other attacks from Genie. It wasn't hard to avoid, he could tell Genie was barely trying. However, after only a minute of the constant dodging, Genie caught him by the collar of his shirt.

"Sorry, kid," Genie said.

Riku shrugged. "It's no big deal," he said. He had been through much worse than this.

"Who are-" Aladdin started to ask, but he was ignored.

"Hey, Jafar," Riku called, suddenly getting an idea. "I noticed you're having the Genie fight your battles. What's gonna happen when he's not around to help you? It seems to me that, without him, you're nothing."

"What!" Jafar snapped.

"Kid, what are you saying?" Genie asked.

Aladdin, however, was catching on. "Genie has ten times the power you do, Jafar!" he shouted. "Compared to him, you're nothing."

"Al!" Genie shouted, shocked.

Jafar took a moment to consider this. "My final wish, Genie!" he said after a moment. "I want you to make me an all-powerful Genie!"

"Way to go, guys," Genie muttered, letting go of Riku. He snapped his fingers, and the ground shook. Jafar's evil laughter filled the air as he rose above them, transforming into a Genie.

Riku rolled forward, grabbing the new lamp that had formed along with Jafar's change. He picked up the lamp and examined it for a moment. "Back to your lamp, Jafar!" he chuckled.

"Wha-" Jafar asked, stopping mid-laugh.

"The one with the lamp calls the shots!" Riku said, as Jafar was sucked into the lamp.

"How can this be!" came Jafar's muffled shouts from inside the lamp.

"It comes with the job, Jafar," Aladdin laughed. "You get phenomenal cosmic powers, and an  _itty bitty_  living space."

Riku looked between Aladdin and Genie. "So, what are we going to do with this lamp?" he asked, twirling it around his finger.

Genie snatched it from his hands. "I say we… burry it!" he pulled out a shovel and proceeded to do so. Riku chuckled.

"I'm Riku, by the way," he said, turning to Aladdin.

"Aladdin."

Riku smiled, and then scratched his head. "Sorry about Jasmine…"

"It's not your fault," Aladdin muttered, staring sadly at the ground.

"Hello! Earth to Al!" Genie said, patting Aladdin on the shoulder. "You've still got one wish left. Just say the word! I'll find Jasmine for you."

"But- Genie…"

Genie grinned.

"Alright," Aladdin sighed. "Here's my final wish; I wish- for you're freedom, Genie."

"Al!" Genie gasped. "You didn't have to go and do that!"

"A deal's a deal, right?"

Riku bit his lip, unsure of what to say about this situation. He felt like he was just in the way at the moment. "I'll find Jasmine," he said, after thinking for a second.

"No, it's alright-" Aladdin began.

"I don't mind," Riku said.

"You sure?"

Riku nodded.

"Thanks," Aladdin said, scratching his head. "I barely even know you," he muttered as an after thought.

"I know," Riku shrugged. "But I know how you feel. There are some people I'd hate to lose, too." Namine flitted past his mind for a second, and he grimaced at the thought of losing her.

"Well, thanks," Aladdin said again. Riku laughed.

"I'll be heading off then," he said, opening up a dark corridor. "I'll bring Jasmine back as soon as I can, okay?"

Aladdin nodded. Riku was gone.

**xxx**

"Hey, Riku," Namine said, not even bothering to look up from her drawing.

Riku chuckled. "You know that I'm not the only who can use dark corridors, right?"

"I know," she replied, carefully fixing a mistake. "I recognized your footsteps."

Riku couldn't think of anything to say in response to that, so he just didn't say anything. He glanced over her shoulder, curious as to what she was drawing. "Hey, that's Kairi," he said.

"Yeah," Namine muttered, slightly frustrated, due to that she had just messed up. She quickly erased her mistake and then set about fixing it. "I've been drawing her and Sora for a bit now."

"Where is that?" Riku asked. He didn't recognize the world Kairi sat in. Well, it looked naggingly familiar, but he didn't know why.

"Oh, that's Hollow Bastion."

Riku frowned, because that name was  _also_  naggingly familiar. He just couldn't place where he had heard it before. "How do you know that?" he asked.

"I sorta… went there yesterday," she muttered. She opened up a dark corridor beside her, and then looked up at Riku and grinned. Unsure of what to say in response to that, he just chuckled. Namine closed the corridor.

"So, how'd it go today, in whatever world you went to?" Namine asked.

Riku shrugged. "Not terribly well. I nearly caught up to Sora, but he got away."

"You know, I bet if Kairi's in Hollow Bastion, that's where Sora is, too," Namine said.

Riku thought about that a second, and then laughed at his own stupidity. "That would make sense…" he muttered.

"Here," Namine opened up a dark corridor. "That'll take you to Hollow Bastion."

"I could have-" Riku began, and then sighed. "Thanks."

"You're welcome!"

Riku waved, and then headed through the dark corridor.


	22. Deep Anxiety

"Kairi!" Riku exclaimed, relieved, shocked, and slightly embarrassed.

"Riku!" Kairi said, sounding just as shocked, relieved, and embarrassed.

"Sorry," Riku muttered, the dark corridor closing behind him. "Namine opened the corridor for me… She could have warned me where-" he trailed off, biting his tongue. "Anyways, it's good to see you!"

"Yeah," Kairi said slowly.

A slightly awkward silence passed. Riku scratched the back of his neck. Kairi just sat there.

"Riku…" Kairi whispered after a moment, turning to stare at the ground. "I think we have a problem…"

"Hmm?" he asked. "About what?"

"Sora…"

Riku raised his eyebrows, suddenly curious. He pulled up a chair and sat down. "What about Sora?"

Kairi nervously fingered a strand of her hair. "I'm getting really worried about him…"

Riku sighed. He knew she was talking about the darkness Sora was throwing himself into. He rubbed his head; this wasn't a subject he liked talking about. But Kairi was probably the most worried out of all of them, and he scolded himself for not thinking about that before now. "I know… he's throwing himself into darkness…"

Kairi shuddered slightly at that, and Riku winced. He probably could have worded that better.

"You've dealt with the darkness, Riku," Kairi said after a moment. "Do you think he'll be alright?"

Riku shook his head, laughing slightly. "I don't know. Sora tried to ask a similar question. But the thing is, you can't compare us. I'm just a replica, I didn't  _choose_  the darkness, I was  _created_ this way. Sora's chosen the darkness, though, and-" Riku shrugged, indicating that he was clueless on this matter.

Kairi sighed. She had hoped that Riku would be able to show her that there was some other way. But it was pretty clear. Sora was deep in a darkness that he probably wouldn't be able to escape. She quickly wiped away the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes.

Riku watched her sadly, feeling worse by the second. "I'm sure Sora will be able to find his way," he said quickly, trying to cheer her up. "It might just take him some time… You can't give up on him."

"I know," Kairi muttered. "Namine keeps telling me the same thing."

Riku laughed. "Same here."

Kairi smiled at him for a second, and then turned away. "It's not just that…" she said quietly. "I've overheard what they've been planning, too…"

"And what would that be?" Riku asked, a small pang of guilt piercing through him. He felt slightly insensitive about pressing her on this, but the information was probably important.

"I don't know… Maleficent was talking about something called Kingdom Hearts… and a Keyhole…" she shrugged. "I didn't catch all of it. I wasn't really paying attention. But apparently Kingdom Hearts will allow her to rule the worlds."

Riku shuddered. "That doesn't sound pleasant…"

Kairi shook her head.

"How does Sora fit into all of this?"

"Something about a Keyblade…"

Riku nodded. He understood that. If there was a Keyhole, the Keyblade would most likely be needed. He groaned, shaking his head. "Sora is such an-" he paused, and then looked up at Kairi. "Do you mind if I call him an idiot?"

She said nothing, but the look in her eyes told him that she'd rather he didn't.

"Well, he's being really stupid at the moment," Riku laughed. "Maleficent's probably just going to dispose of him once she no longer needs him." He shook his head. "Don't ask how I know that," he muttered. He didn't know why he did. But it was that same little thing at the back of his mind that had recognized the name "Ansem" and "Hollow Bastion" that was telling him this. And it sounded right.

"I'm really scared, Riku," Kairi said. "I just-"

Everything was a blur. He heard Kairi scream, and then next thing Riku knew, he was against the wall. And an extremely angry Sora was holding him there. He gasped, as Sora's grip in his shoulder was really tight.

"Sora!" Kairi gasped. "What are you  _doing_!"

If Sora heard her, he didn't show it. He continued to glare at Riku. "Why are you here?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"I was just talking to Kairi," Riku said slowly, trying to remain calm.

"You're trying to get in the way!" Sora accused.

"Am not!" Riku replied, anger growing by the second.

Sora wouldn't listen to reason. He was barely listening at all.

"Let go of me!" Riku gasped, but Sora's grip only tightened. Angry, and as annoyed as heck, Riku shifted into dark mode and shot Dark Firaga. Sora went flying, and Kairi gasped. An odd sense of déjà vu went through Riku, but he ignored it. He was too busy watching Sora, whose form flickered and changed, and an aura of darkness surrounded him.

Riku gasped as Sora struggled to his feet.  _Sora just-_

He wasn't given time to finish that thought, for at that moment Sora leaned back and shot Dark Firaga at him. Kairi gasped again, and Riku quickly rolled out of the way. "Sora!" he gasped, shocked. Anger flared up inside him. Sora had just- had just-

 _Just gone into dark mode and shot Dark Firaga at me_ , his mind was telling him, but he didn't quite want to admit it.

He glanced over at Kairi, and then quickly rushed forward and shoved Sora out into the hall. Kairi watched the two in horror. Riku jumped back, and then pulled out his blade and ran to strike. Sora back-flipped, yes, back-flipped out of the way. He paused, and then turned to look at Riku, eyes cold.

"Riku," he said quietly, summoning his own blade. "If you're going to get in my way, then that makes you my enemy, too."

Riku swallowed, but resumed his fighting stance. His eyes darted over to Kairi and he closed his eyes for a second.  _So sorry, Kairi, you didn't need to see this,_  he thought, and then opened his eyes, focusing on Sora.

Kairi screamed and turned away as the two rushed into battle.


	23. A Little too Late

Namine gasped in shock as Riku came flying out of a dark corridor and hit the ground hard. He didn't pause and groan, as he usually did after something like this happened. Instead, he jumped immediately to his feet, and glared at the closing corridor.

"That jerk!" he shouted. "He just  _threw_  me out!"

"Who did?" Namine asked quietly.

"Sora!" Riku replied, sounding rather upset. Namine could understand why. "He  _literally_ beat me up and kicked me out."

"Really?" Namine asked, slightly shocked.

"Really! He can't complain about losing to me now…" Riku trailed off, muttering a few inaudible insults. Namine frowned, slowly rising to her feet to try and calm him down. "He started using dark powers!" he shouted suddenly, throwing his arms into the air, Namine took a step back. "I mean, come on! That's just not fair!" He continued ranting, but Namine stopped listening. Something else had drawn her attention.

"You're hurt…" she said quietly.

"Huh?" Riku asked, stopping mid-sentence to turn and look at her. He glanced at the wound on his shoulder that she was referring to, and shrugged. "It's just a scratch," he said, pushing the matter aside.

Namine raised her eyebrows, continuing to stare at the wound. A wound that was  _definitely_  more than "just a scratch." She scanned over the rest of him, finding more of these "scratches." In reality, however, they were bleeding gashes.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured her.

"You're bleeding…"

"I am?" He actually sounded rather shocked. He took another look at the wound and grimaced. "I suppose I am," he mused. Namine stared at him, unsure if he was just saying that to be strong for her or if he honestly hadn't noticed. After a second, she figured it was the latter, and laughed.

"We should get you bandaged up," she said.

"No! I'm fine! Really," Riku said rather quickly. "Besides, I should be heading back-"

Namine shook her head and forced him down into the chair. "Not yet you aren't," she told him firmly. "If you go back now you'll just get beaten again." She turned away, trying to locate the bandages.

"I doubt it…" Riku muttered, but cooperated anyways as Namine started bandaging his wounds.

"You took a rather hard beating, didn't you?" Namine said.

"Yeah-" Riku grunted. "Sora's- I don't know. He's got strength that's not his own. And there's something different about his Keyblade, too…"

"What about it?"

Riku sighed, trying to figure out how to explain it. "You remember the cracks in it, right?"

Namine nodded.

"Well, they've gotten worse. And it's not just the cracks now… like- thorns have started growing around it. It's really weird. It's almost as if the thorns are holding the blade together, because the cracks are so bad…" He shrugged, and then winced.

"Sorry," Namine whispered, pulling her hands away from a particular wound. She waited a second before trying again, this time going about bandaging the wound more gently. "Maybe you should try again," she suggested. "I'm sure you'll be able to talk some sense into him."

"Yeah, right," Riku laughed bitterly. "He just gets mad at  _everything_  I say, and then I start yelling, and then we start fighting-" he sighed. "Sora's so stubborn."

Namine laughed. "So are you."

Riku chuckled at this. "You know, to be completely honest, I went easy on him."

"Of course you did," she laughed, moving to bandage a different wound.

"Hey! Don't give me that," Riku said, sounding slightly annoyed. But he was grinning the entire time. "Do you think Sora could honestly beat me up this bad if I hadn't have let him?"

Namine just smiled and said nothing. Riku shook his head.

"Well, I did go easy on him. I barely used Dark Mode at all. Only a bit at the beginning of the battle, and even then I wasn't attacking very hard. Then he knocked me out of Dark Mode, and it sorta went downhill from there…" Riku scratched his head. "I wasn't trying very hard though. I didn't really want to hurt him. And Kairi was there, too."

"She was!" Namine asked.

"Yeah, I was talking to her before Sora showed up."

"Do you think she's handling everything okay?"

Riku shook his head. "I don't think so… especially not after watching me and Sora fight like-" he stopped suddenly, as Namine moved to bandage a wound on his side. He glanced over her, swearing his heart skipped a beat. His face grew hot and he quickly turned away. After an uncomfortable minute, which felt like much longer, he asked: "Are you done yet?"

"No, sorry," Namine muttered, fumbling with the bandage. "Like I said before, you got beat up pretty badly."

"I told you I went easy on him!"

"That doesn't change the fact that that you're  _bleeding_!" She said, and then pulled away, sighing. "There, done." She took a step back, glancing over him again. "I  _think_  I got everything… does anything else hurt?"

"My back…" Riku said slowly, and then quickly added: "Like, it aches. I was thrown into a wall three times."

Namine winced.

"It's not bleeding, is it?" Riku asked nervously.

Namine checked and shook her head no. Riku let out a small sigh of relief, which went unnoticed. "Good, if that's it, I should get going again," he said, standing up.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Namine asked.

He flexed his shoulder, where one of the worst wounds was. A small wave pain shot through his arm, and he did his best not to wince. He didn't need her worrying any more about him. "I'll be fine!" he told her. She frowned, not believing him for one second. He grinned, opening up a dark corridor.

"Riku, please be careful," she sighed, knowing she wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it.

"Don't worry, I will be," he laughed, stepping through. "Promise."

There was a pause, a flash, and then Riku gasped, stumbling back.

"What the-?" he muttered, glaring at the dark corridor in confusion.

"What happened?" Namine asked.

"I… don't know…" Riku muttered, sticking his hand into the corridor. He pulled it back quickly, as if he had been shocked. "It shocked me," he frowned, and then closed the corridor and opened a new one. "Hang on-" he muttered, stepping through. He was only gone a minute, before he came back. "Okay…" he said slowly. "That worked…"

"What's the matter?" Namine asked, as Riku opened another dark corridor and cautiously stuck his hand into it. Again, he pulled his hand back quickly, as if he had been shocked. There was a sharp intake of air as he shook his hand.

"I… can't go to Hollow Bastion. It keeps shocking me every time I try." He closed the dark corridor in frustration.

"Let me try…" Namine said, opening up a dark corridor herself. Well, she tried to, it didn't work until the second try. Noting Riku's previous caution, she carefully stuck her hand in, as he had done. About halfway through, her hand hit something and she gasped, pulling her hand back. "That stung!" she whispered under her breath, rubbing her fingers. She closed the dark corridor and sighed. "I guess not," she muttered, turning to Riku. "What do you think happened?"

"I don't know," he said, still extremely confused. "I suppose Sora might have-" he paused, just because the idea sounded a bit ridiculous.

"Might have what?"

"Done something," Riku finished. "You know, considering he knew I was going to try and come back as soon as possible. But- I- I can't imagine  _what_  he did, let alone  _how_  he did it."

Namine bit her lip, thinking about it. "There's got to be another way," she said after a moment. "There's  _always_  another way."

Riku stared at her, wondering where that bit of knowledge had come from. She caught his drift and shrugged, but determination remained in her eyes.

"Hmph," Riku said. "I guess you're right…" He sighed. "But what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know…" Namine muttered, suddenly at a loss of what to say. She was getting rather annoyed that she kept saying these things, but having no idea what she meant by them. However, Riku took no notice, he was deep in his own thoughts.

"Do you think that maybe there's a back way in?" he asked after a moment. "You know, like a way in from another world?"

"There could be…" Namine answered. The idea definitely didn't seem that far fetched. She, of course, had no idea. "It might be worth looking into."

Riku groaned. "I'm never going to find him. And I had him," he muttered angrily. "I just didn't do anything, and I let him beat me. If I had just-" he stopped, Namine placing a hand on his shoulder (the good one).

"It's not your fault," she assured him. "This probably would have happened no matter what."

Riku took a breath, calming himself down.

"Besides," Namine continued. "Maybe this is best. Now you have some time to heal."

"Yeah, you're right," he muttered, but opened up a dark corridor anyways. "I'm going to start searching," he said. Namine didn't have time to reply, for as soon as he had said that he was gone.


	24. Numb

His breath was coming hard to him. He sat there, gasping for air. His heart felt like it was going to explode.

 _I don't get it,_ he thought bitterly.  _Riku uses darkness all the time, what makes me any different?_

" _Sora!" Riku shouted. "I'm pure data. My mind, my body, my heart, the darkness in my heart—it's all data. I don't think I could change it if I tried, okay? I didn't get a choice in the matter. Nothing about me is even real! You, Sora, however, are. You're real and so is the darkness inside of you. And, from the looks of things, it's eating you from the inside out."_

He clutched his chest, gasping as the pain became unbearable.  _I thought he was just bluffing. But I guess… maybe… maybe Riku was-_

"That was a reckless use of your dark powers," Maleficent scolded, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Shut up!" Sora gasped, glaring up at her.

"Just remember," Maleficent said. "Relying too much on the darkness could cost you your heart."

"Hmph," Sora growled. "You think I don't know that?" he sneered, slowly rising to his feet. "But at least I got rid of Riku! Now he won't be in our way! Can we just get started with the plan already?"

Maleficent raised her eyebrows, obviously not liking the tone Sora was taking with her. However, she said nothing about it. "Very well," she said instead, leading the way to the Grand Hall. Sora followed behind her.

Kairi was already in the Grand Hall, having been told to wait there. She felt numb, like she was dreaming. She hoped she was dreaming. After that battle between Sora and Riku-

She shuddered. That battle was the worst thing she had seen in a while, even if she hadn't stuck around to watch it. She had ducked back into her room shortly after it started, but hearing it take place had been worse, because her imagination came up with it's own images to place with the noises. She had sat there, growing more worried as the battle wore on. Riku's screams of pain had grown louder and more frequent, Sora had begun to laugh, as if he was enjoying Riku's pain.

 _I must be dreaming,_ she told herself. There was no way this could be real.

The door opened and she turned to look. "Sora," she said, relieved to see him. Some part of her just wished that he'd tell her that she had just been dreaming. That all of this was just a figment of her imagination. But the rest of her knew. She wasn't dreaming.

He ran over to her. Her heart plummeted, still seeing traces of darkness in his eyes, still seeing bitterness on his face. She closed her eyes, holding back tears. She wouldn't cry. Not now.

 _I just need to tell him,_ she thought, and then said: "Sora, I really don't think this is a good idea-"

He laughed and grabbed her hand. "It's going to be fine!" he said.

For a second she believed him. She wanted so badly to believe him. To just let everything be alright. But she couldn't.

"But, Sora, I-"

She never got to finish that thought. Maleficent, who was ignoring them, had just flung her arms into the air and commanded in a powerful, booming voice: "O Purest of Hearts, reveal to me the Keyhole!"

A blinding light filled the room. A still silence pervaded the air, broken only when the light faded. A single streak of light remained, like an arrow, pointing to the Keyhole.

"Aha!" Sora laughed, his excitement scaring Kairi. He turned to her, a grin on his face. "Hold on," he said, letting go of her hand and starting to run off. "I need to-"

"No," Kairi said, catching him by the arm. "You don't."

"What?" Sora asked, tugging his arm away. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't have to do this, Sora!"

He looked at her, something close to a glare in his eyes. She stared at him, and swallowed. She could see the darkness clouding over him.

"Yes, Kairi, I do," he said coldly. "Maleficent helped me find you, I said I'd help her with this. We had a deal."

He acted as if it was just that simple. But Kairi knew it wasn't. There was something more to this. There had to be something more to this. "Why are you doing this!" Kairi asked, frantic.

He turned away from her. "I just- I need to!"

"Sora!" Kairi shouted in disbelief. "You aren't listening to me! There is  _nothing_  that's making you do this!" But as soon as she said it she knew it was a lie. There  _was_  something forcing him to do this. The darkness. It was controlling him. It had been controlling him for a while now.

"Sora, please!" she called desperately, not to him, but to the light inside of him. "There's still light in you! And you know somewhere deep down in your heart that what you're doing isn't right!"

Sora refused to look at her. "I have to do this," he whispered, running off.

She watched him in shock. Her heart tore itself in two, and a tear slowly rolled down her cheek. "Sora…" she muttered.

He glanced back at her only once. Guilt stabbed at his heart, and he paused. In that moment, he wanted to just run back and apologize. He wanted to run back and-

His darkness wouldn't let him. It made him turn. It made him keep going. He stopped only when he stood in front of the Keyhole.

"What'll happen once I unlock it?" Sora asked Maleficent, almost nervous.

"The heartless will overrun this world, and the darkness will take over," Maleficent replied. "But no need to worry. The darkness holds no power over us."

He glanced at her skeptically. Even with the darkness strong in his heart, he found it hard to believe her. Nevertheless, he pulled out his blade.

Nothing happened.

Sora raised his eyebrows.

"Impossible!" Maleficent gasped. "The Keyhole isn't complete!"

"What?" Sora asked, confused. "But- how-"

"It must be  _her_ ," Maleficent, turning and looking at Kairi. Sora was taken aback.

"What!" he asked, the darkness in him being shoved down by his worry for Kairi. "How  _dare_  you suggest that Kairi's the problem?"

"She is the only princess conscious," Maleficent said. "She must be holding back her power somehow."

Sora scowled. He didn't really like the tone Maleficent used when she had said the word "princess". She said the word almost loathingly. Slowly, he took a step away from her, but didn't take anymore.

"What can we do?" he asked quietly, regretting saying it as soon as he did.

Maleficent took a second to consider this. "Only the princesses' hearts are required…" she said slowly, turning back around to look at the Keyhole.

"What!" Sora shouted, shocked. He took a good three steps backwards. "Are you suggesting that- No! We- no!" he stuttered. "Forget it! There is no way you're taking Kairi's heart!"

He stopped. Maleficent turned to him, and she  _knew._  Sora had no idea what to do next. After what he had just said to Kairi, there was no way he could do anything.

Sora turned and ran, right then and there.


	25. Torrent of Memories

"I thought you went searching, and yet here you are buying potions!"

Riku looked up, finding Namine standing in the doorway of the Item Shop. He shrugged and handed his munny over, and the shopkeeper handed him the potions.

"I ran out," he muttered.

"Well, I think we need to go to Twilight Town."

"What for?" Riku asked, pocketing the potions and walking over to her.

"Here," she pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and showed it to him. She had drawn a picture of the Mansion in Twilight Town.

"I recognize that…" Riku said. "Not like, I know it and I don't know why. Like, I've been there before… I just… can't remember when…" He sighed and shook his head. "Anyways, you think we should go there?"

"Well, I've been thinking about other ways into Hollow Bastion, and I drew this…" Namine shrugged. "There's got to be some reason why I drew it."

"Fair enough."

They stepped outside the Item Shop. Riku glanced around, making sure no one was looking their way, and opened up a dark corridor. "C'mon," he said, stepping through, Namine not far behind.

**xxx**

"Hey, I can actually enjoy this place now!" Namine said, looking around.

Riku laughed. "We'll be seeing a lot of it, if we're going to be trying to find another way into Hollow Bastion."

Namine was watching some kids eat ice cream with interest. "I want ice cream…" she said after a moment.

Riku checked his pockets. "I'm out of munny," he muttered.

Namine turned to look at him. "Well if you hadn't gone and wasted it all on potion!" she laughed.

"I didn't waste it on-" Riku paused. A young boy of about ten walked up to them. He had shaggy black hair that fell into his steel blue eyes. The boy pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Riku. Riku took it and looked at it curiously. It appeared to be an ice cream stick, and it had the word "WINNER" imprinted on this. "What's this?" he asked, looking at the kid.

"It's a WINNER stick," the boy replied. "You can get a free ice cream if you turn one in. You can have it. I can't eat more than one ice cream at a time, and I tend to forget my WINNERs when I come here. I've got like a million of them at home. I'm really lucky, and tend to get one, like, every time I come here. Even though they're supposed to be hard to find…"

"Thanks…" Namine said slowly. "You didn't have to…"

The boy shrugged. "Like I said, I've got like a million at home." He turned away, finishing his own ice cream, and was about three steps away before he stopped. He laughed, and turned back around.

"Here," he said, tossing his ice cream stick. Riku caught it. It was another WINNER stick.

"Told you I'm lucky!" the boy laughed, walking off.

"That was rather nice of him," Namine said, watching the boy go.

Riku shrugged, still slightly dazed about what had just happened. "Let's go get some ice cream," he said after a moment.

**xxx**

They walked around Twilight Town, enjoying their ice cream and attempting to find what could possibly be a back way into Hollow Bastion. By the time their ice cream was gone, they had thoroughly searched the town. Well, all of it except the Mansion. They had agreed to check there last.

"I've been here…" Riku muttered, as they walked into the clearing in front of the Mansion. The memories were faint in the back of his mind, and he couldn't pick out which one he had seen this in.

He glanced around, and the more he looked, the stronger the memories became.

_"Hold it!"_

He turned around.

"You okay?" Namine asked.

"Yeah…" he said slowly. "I just thought I heard-"

_"Hmph. You've changed…"_

_"I'm me!"_

"… _be nice, being real…"_

He gasped in shock, the memories flooding back to him. His eyes went wide as the memories glazed before them.

_"…right, I'm a phony! A fake! The way I look, the way I feel…"_

"… _finding some new strength, I could finally be someone…"_

_"…you're around, I'll never…"_

Flashes of a battle, sharp voices, sharper than ever, stabbing at him like knives. And like knives they hit him, as each stroke of the blade was slowly remembered, each time he was hit with a dark attack, each use of a dark attack. The voices were frantic now, blending into each other, repeating themselves like a broken record. The attacks were quicker, the voices were louder-

A sudden wave of pain went up his wrist in response to the flash of memory. He clutched it in shock, biting his tongue at the pain. Then, like a tidal wave, the memories hit him, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Riku!" Namine shouted.

It was probably her voice that saved him from the torrent of memories flashing before his eyes and the roar of voices in his ears. He slowly blinked his eyes open, and just stared up at the sky. Slightly dazed, he wondered for a second why he wasn't in Dark Mode, and why his essence wasn't slowly fading away.

"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down next to him.

"I died here," he said, continuing to stare at the sky.

"You- what!"

"I died here," he repeated. He turned to look at her, noting the confused look on her face. He slowly smiled. "I never told you, did I?" he laughed.

She shook her head.

"Before I was offered the second chance, I died," Riku said, absentmindedly rubbing his wrist. "Well, I was killed."

"Who killed you?" Namine asked, almost expecting it to be an Organization member.

"The real Riku," he replied. Namine was slightly taken aback, but not much so, she had a feeling she already knew this.

"What happened?"

"Do you want the full story or the short one?"

Namine laughed.

"Right, full one," Riku said, laughing. He closed his eyes, memories fresh in his mind as he explained. "It started when Axel instructed me to kill Zexion, convincing me that if I found some new strength, I could be my own self, and not just a copy of the real Riku. However, he lied. I had the strength, and yet I still wasn't any different. I was still- just a copy." He sighed, doing his best not to get angry over this.

"I was angry. Angrier than I had ever felt before. I went to confront the real Riku. I just wanted it to be over. One of us had to die, and we both knew which. What did the world need with a fake Riku, eh?" He laughed bitterly. "Nothing. We fought, and even with all my strength, he beat me."

He paused, thinking. "I don't quite remember what happened next. It's all a bit of a blur. I was dead, or I should have been dead, but I wasn't. Someone offered me a second chance, I took it, and then next thing I knew I was on the shores of Destiny Islands; hurt, bleeding, and unable to remember anything. Kairi found me and-" He stopped, face falling into horror.

"What?" Namine asked.

"We need to go," Riku said, sitting up. He winced, clutching his side. Of course, the wound he had now just so happened to be in the same place as his old one was, so it hurt even worse. Namine reached out to steady him, as he looked like he was about to fall back over.

"I'm fine," he said through clenched teeth, trying to get to his feet. Namine helped him up.

"Are you sure you're okay enough to go to Hollow Bastion?" Namine asked.

"We don't even know if there's a way in from here."

"There  _might_  be," Namine muttered. "C'mon, you should get some rest."

"I'm fine!" Riku repeated.

Namine took a step away from him. "Walk for me then," she told him. He took about two steps before collapsing.

"See! You're not fine," she said, bending down to help him up again. "There's no way you'll be able to do anything like this."

"I'll be okay!" he insisted.

Namine shook her head. "You're memory meltdowns may not be as bad as mine," she said. "But that doesn't mean they aren't bad. And you're  _hurt._ We really should head back to Traverse Town so you can get some rest."

"I told you, I'm fine!"

"You just  _collapsed!_ " Namine exclaimed. "You know that you can't face Sora like this! He's just going to beat you again!"

Riku muttered something under his breath.

"What?" Namine asked.

"Nothing," he replied quickly.

She raised her eyebrows, and then laughed and opened up a dark corridor. "Come on," she said, leading him through.


	26. Pulling Me Down

He was running. Where to? He didn't know. What from? Everything.

"What am I supposed to do?" he wondered aloud, continuing to run. "I can't- I can't fix this, I can't-"

"A weak heart can't accomplish anything…"

Sora stopped, quickly turning around. A mysterious figure stood behind him. A hood covered the figure's face, and under the hood seemed to be nothing but darkness. Sora couldn't help but think he had seen this person before. However, he had other things on his mind.

"My heart isn't weak!" he snapped.

The mysterious figure scoffed. "A strong heart would have been able to make a decision quickly, and you wouldn't be in this mess now."

Sora turned away.

"A heart out of balance could never do anything…"

"What?" Sora asked. "What do you mean 'out of balance'?"

"You are constantly resisting the darkness, which makes you weak. Accept the darkness, and you will become even stronger."

Sora suddenly became skeptical. The darkness had gotten him into this mess, hadn't it? Or had it really just been his weak heart?

"What should I do?" he asked.

"It is really quite simple," the mysterious figure replied. "Open yourself to the darkness. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself."

Sora hesitated. Was this really going to work? Would he really be able to fix this if he became stronger? And was the darkness the strength he needed?

Nearly every fiber of him was screaming no. But he wasn't listening. He thought that maybe, just maybe, if he did this, he could fix things. And he wanted so badly to be able to set things right, and if this would do it-

He gave in, opening himself up. He flashed into dark mode, an aura of darkness surrounding him. Power, sweet power rushed through him. It pulsed through him quickly, muddling his thoughts.

"Strength…" he whispered, but his voice wasn't entirely his own. Another voice stood behind his, evenly going with what he said, but its tone was different. More cocky, more confident, more… amused.

He smirked, and then summoned his Keyblade. It was different, the thorns now snaked around the entire blade, and the cracks were so bad that part of the hilt was missing. He looked at it, curious, and slightly worried. But the person behind him laughed.

_"Who's there?" Sora (or rather, his light) asked. Something felt different about his heart. Like something else was there…_

_A cold laughter filled the air, and he shuddered. He turned, finding the shadow that was now lingering in his heart. He gasped, stumbling back. He swallowed, glaring at the shadow._

" _Who are you?" he asked._

_"Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness!" the shadow laughed._

_"How did-" Sora began, and then gulped. "How did you get in here?"_

_"You let me in, silly boy,"_

_"I… I did?" Sora asked. His memory was fragmented. It felt as if he had been asleep for a while, just floating here in the darkness. But now that someone else was here, he had something to keep him busy, so he wouldn't doze off again. "Why did I do that?"_

_"Because I can help you,"_

_"You can!" Sora asked, excitement in his voice. "You mean I can fix things?"_

_"Of course," Ansem said._

_Sora smiled and then sat down, quite content. He just wanted to set things right again._

**xxx**

Riku woke up in a slight panic. His dream hadn't been a very nice one. However, he had expected something like this after collapsing in Twilight Town. He turned to Namine, who sat quietly, drawing. "How long have I been out?" he asked.

"Only a couple of hours," she replied.

He groaned, rubbing his head.

"How's your head?" Namine asked, laughing slightly.

He laughed at that. "Fine," he said. "I wasn't groaning about that. I was groaning about the fact we can't get into Hollow Bastion!" His voice rose slightly with anger at this.

"We could always ask Leon," Namine suggested.

Riku frowned. "You couldn't have, you know, thought of that five hours ago,  _before_  we went to Twilight Town?"

"Sorry," Namine muttered.

"It's fine," Riku laughed, standing up. "I'll go ask him then," he said, starting to head off.

"Can I come too?" Namine asked.

He turned to look at her, and sighed. "I don't think it would be safe. And I really wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Namine sighed. "Yeah, I get it," she muttered.

He reached out and grabbed her hand. "Hey," he said, smiling at her. "I'll be okay. Maybe I'll be able to knock some sense into Sora, and then I'll bring him and Kairi back. Okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Cool," he said, letting go of her hand and starting off.

"Be careful, Riku," she called. "You're still hurt, you know. Don't… overdo anything."

"I won't," he replied, leaving.


	27. Trying to Escape

He stood before the Keyhole. The Keyhole that would be completed oh so soon. He was in Dark Mode, the look on his face determined. He watched her, half with pity, half with amusement. She was on her knees, desperately pleading with him. This was her last chance. If only she could get through to him.

"You don't have to do this!" Kairi cried, staring at him in disbelief. She was shocked, angry, confused. She couldn't tell if the tears that rolled down her cheeks were from sadness or from anger. She didn't know what was wrong with him. But something was definitely wrong with Sora, even more so now than before.

"You don't understand," Sora said. Kairi shuddered at his voice. That was another thing that had changed. His voice was colder, and blended almost perfectly with another voice, that stood strongly behind his. "I have to do this."

 _No you don't!_ Kairi thought bitterly, terribly upset. "Please! If you can still here me-" she shouted, hoping to get through to the light inside of him. "You know you don't have to do this! Turn back!" She was sobbing now, voice barely escaping her tears. "Sora…" She broke down into sobs and lay crying on the ground, so scared. Sora was gone. The Sora she knew was gone. The boy standing in front of her wasn't Sora, just some pawn of the darkness.

He turned to look at her, a bit of pity in his eyes. But he didn't run and comfort her, as he would have only a few days ago. He just watched her, doing nothing, like he didn't even care.

But some part of him did. The light in his heart broke down crying, too, ashamed of what the rest of him was doing. Ashamed that he had made Kairi this scared.

_"What are you doing!" Sora shouted, glaring up at Ansem with tear streaked cheeks."I thought you said we could fix things!"_

_Ansem laughed, and Sora shuddered, surprised he hadn't seen it earlier. Ansem wasn't here to fix things, he was here to make them worse._

He slowly pulled out his Keyblade, aiming it at Kairi.

_"NO!" Sora shouted, realizing what was going on. There was no way he was going to let this happen. Ansem just continued to laugh._

He focused his energy, concentrating on the task. The tip of his blade sparked with energy, and Kairi slowly fell silent.

_"You won't make me do this!" Sora cried defiantly, doing his best to regain control of his body. He managed to make himself lower his blade for a second, but that's all he got. Ansem shot out a wave of darkness, which pinned him down. He struggled against the darkness for a second, before he lapsed again into the waves of sleep._

_"You're too much trouble," Ansem muttered._

Again, he raised his blade, aiming it at Kairi. Energy sparked at the tip of the blade. There was a sudden blinding flash of light. Kairi gasped, as her heart was torn from her body. The Keyhole flashed. Sora glanced over at it, smiling. Finally.

**xxx**

Riku sighed, glancing up at the castle of Hollow Bastion. He had informed Leon of his predicament, and Leon had suggested a Gummi Ship. Cid had then offered to give him a lift. However, after just that one trip, Riku decided he didn't like Gummi Ships very much, and was glad that he could still use dark corridors to gain access to other worlds.

 _So this is what the outside of it looks like…_ he thought, though he honestly wasn't surprised about it. He still had that nagging feeling that he had been here before, he just couldn't recall when, exactly.  _Whatever,_ he thought.  _I just need to figure out where I need to be going._

Almost instantly, a fuzzy image came to mind. He frowned, wondering what the heck his brain was trying to tell him. He opened up a dark corridor, and started to step through, before being knocked back. He gasped.

 _I can't believe I forgot…_  he thought, and then sighed, closing the corridor. It would probably take him forever to navigate himself through Hollow Bastion to where he needed to be. He had already lost twenty minutes in the Gummi Ship. And judging by the sudden amount of Heartless showing up, he probably didn't have much time left.

"This stinks," he muttered, ignoring the Heartless and running off.

**xxx**

He was relatively close to where he needed to be. He could feel it. However, there was someone in his way.

"Who are you?" Riku asked sharply. Though, it was a sort of pointless question. He already knew that this was Maleficent. How? Well,  _that_  he didn't know. There was something just nagging at the back of his mind.

"You must be Riku," Maleficent said, trying to sound pleasant. Riku nearly laughed at that. "I'm afraid you're too late, though. Any moment now, the final Keyhole will be unsealed, and this world will be plunged into darkness."

"Look," Riku said. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't have time for this. Just tell me where Sora is."

Maleficent laughed. "I don't think you'll need to be worrying about that."

Riku scowled. "Seriously, you really don't want to be in my way at the moment. Just tell me where Sora is. I don't care one bit about what you want to do, but if you're going to be in my way, I  _might_  just have to kill you."

"You think you can defeat me?" Maleficent asked. "Me, the Mistress of all Evil?"

Riku groaned, and pulled his blade. He did  _not_  have time for this.

**xxx**

_He sat in the eternal darkness, so cold. What had he just done? Why couldn't he have stopped it?_

_"Kairi's in even more danger," he moaned. "And again, it's all my fault."_

_He shuddered, just thinking about the fragmented memories. He had only picked up bits and pieces of what had just happened. All he knew was what he had done, and he was slightly thankful he didn't have to witness the entire scene._

_However, there was one thing he couldn't forget._

_Kairi's scream, as her heart had been torn from her body._

_It was echoing in his mind, over and over again._

_"I can't believe…" he whispered. "I- what have I done? I- I-"_

_"Foolish boy," Ansem laughed. "Stop regretting it. It will all work out."_

_Anger shot through him. "Work out?" Sora asked, almost laughing. "You think this is all going to work out?"_

_"Soon, the eternal darkness will be ours!"_

_"I don't want any part of this," Sora muttered._

_"What do you expect to do?" Ansem asked. "There is nothing you can do to stop it!"_

_"Nothing?" he asked, slowly rising to his feet. "You think after what you made me do to Kairi, I'm just gonna give up?" He laughed, bitterly. "I don't want anything to do with the darkness, and I don't want anything to do with you. I realize now, that the darkness doesn't make me any stronger, it only makes me weaker. I was weak, to let you in. And letting you stay just makes me weaker." He pulled out his Keyblade. It was absent of the cracks and the thorns, shining brightly with light. Light that his heart hadn't seen for a while now._

_"Impossible!" Ansem gasped, staring at the Keyblade._

_"Get out of my heart!" Sora shouted, charging._


	28. Confronting the Darkness

After dealing with Maleficent, which didn't take long, Riku arrived in the Grand Hall. Maleficent had been easy to deal with, though Riku had a feeling she wasn't dead. However, he really didn't care. He had other things to worry about.

One of them being Kairi. He ran over to her, wondering what was wrong. She seemed to be asleep.

He kneeled down next to her. "Kairi?" he asked gently, placing a hand on her shoulder. She didn't budge. He frowned. Something wasn't right…

"I was wondering when you were going to come back," someone laughed. Riku turned, shocked. It sounded like Sora, but yet… not entirely him. There was something off about his voice, as if another person was speaking with him. And he kind of recognized that voice. Why, however, he did not know, as usual.

"I knew I couldn't keep you away forever," Sora said.

Riku stared at him. Sora was still in Dark Mode and his Keyblade was already out. The thorns had gotten worse. However, he managed to say: "You've got that right." He swallowed. Something definitely wasn't right. "What's wrong with Kairi?" he asked after a moment.

Sora seemed to wince slightly at that, but didn't answer.

"Sora!" Riku called, shocked. Normally Sora would have at least  _said_  something. But- not even saying anything… That worried Riku. And Riku had never worried this much about Sora before. He slowly rose to his feet.

"Sora, what did you  _do_?" Riku asked.

"Hmph," Sora said. "What does it matter to you?" he asked. His voice had its usual bitterness in it, but the voice behind his was almost amused.

Riku scowled, glancing over at Kairi, and then back to Sora. He then glanced past Sora at the Keyhole, and could just  _feel_  the darkness flowing out of it. He shook his head in disgust. "What are you planning?" he asked. "You know that the darkness will devour you!"

Sora laughed. "The darkness holds no power over  _me_." However, Sora didn't sound too sure about that. The voice behind his, however, seemed perfectly confident in this.

 _This isn't Sora,_ Riku concluded.  _Someone else is just using him. I wonder if he's even awake down there…_

"Who are you?" he shouted. He had given up on trying to get through to Sora. The question was directed at whoever was controlling him. Maybe he'd be able to squeeze some answers out of them.

They smiled at this. It was a smug smile, which didn't really belong on Sora's face. "It is I, Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness!" Sora's own voice had gotten quieter with the statement, while Ansem's had gotten louder.

"Ansem?" Riku asked. The word tasted vile on his tongue. He knew the name. However, where from was fleeting. But he did know one thing. He kind of hated this person. He didn't know  _why_ , he just knew that he  _did_.

"Tell me, Ansem," Riku said. Ansem's name came out loathingly, as if was poison to say it. "What are you trying to do? Why do you need Sora?"

Ansem (Riku had given up on calling him Sora, as Sora was long gone) raised an eyebrow at this. "I needed to assemble the final Keyhole," he explained, almost lazily. Sora's voice just trailed along behind his, dull and emotionless. "And I required a key to unlock it. You're friend did the rest."

Of course. Things were starting to click in Riku's mind. Keyhole = Keyblade = Sora. Ansem was giving away things so easily, though. Riku smiled slightly at this, but did his best to hide it. "What did he do?" he asked, curious. Maybe Ansem would give this one away, too.

"His heart was weak," Ansem laughed. Sora, however, didn't sound too happy about that statement. "He craved strength, and willingly let me in."

Riku shuddered at that. "That doesn't sound like Sora…" he muttered, and then glanced over at Kairi. "What did you do her?"

"The Keyhole could not be completed, while she was still conscious, for some reason," Ansem replied. Sora's voice sounded almost… hurt about the fact. However, if Ansem noticed this, he didn't show it,

"And so you-" Riku began, but paused, not wanting to say it. He shuddered. "And you  _made_  Sora-" he stopped, grimacing, definitely not liking that thought.  _Sora, how are you NOT awake down there?_ he thought.  _You must be furious, if you are…_

"You know," he told Ansem. "I am starting to like you less and less as time wears on." He shifted in to Dark Mode. "Now, I'm going to ask you nicely: let my friend go. I'll fight you, if that's what you want, but I'd rather not hurt Sora."

"How touching," Ansem laughed. "But what about you, Riku? It seems that you also choose to wield the darkness."

Riku rolled his eyes. How many times was he going to have to tell people this? "I didn't  _choose_  it," he said. "I was  _created_  this way. And I'd prefer not to get into details. Just let Sora go!"

"I'm afraid not," Ansem laughed.

Riku sighed, pulling his blade. "Then I guess I have no choice," he sighed. "Honestly, I really didn't want to have to fight you. But if you aren't going to let Sora go willingly, I'll force you to do so, if I must." He grimaced. "Sorry, Sora," he muttered, charging up a Dark Aura.


	29. Fighting the Darkness

_Sora hit the ground hard, his Keyblade flying out of his reach. He stumbled to grab it again, before the shadows snatched it. He groaned. The rest of him was currently fighting Riku. And it seemed that every time Riku's blade hit him he grew weaker, as Ansem grew stronger._

" _This stinks… you would think that Riku would be hurting both of us…" he muttered, thankfully managing to grab a hold of his Keyblade before the shadows got to it._

" _Stop resisting!" Ansem shouted, commanding a few more shadows to attack him. He knocked them back, running forward to attack Ansem. Ansem dodged, again. Sora had barely hit him at all._

" _This is my heart!" Sora said, rolling out of the way of an attack from Ansem's Guardian, which was rather annoying. "You're the one who needs to stop fighting!" He rushed forward, managing to pull a nice combo before being knocked back._

_The shadows got a hold of his leg, and restrained him. He gasped and writhed in pain as the affects of Riku's Dark Aura hit him. Ansem just laughed. The shadows attempted to rip the Keyblade from his hand, but he held on tightly. If he lost the Keyblade, he would lose all hope._

_Riku's attack finally finished, and the shadows released him. He fell to his knees, panting. "How the heck isn't he getting hurt?" he wondered, glaring at Ansem. Ansem continued to laugh. "This isn't fair…"_

_He rushed forward again, attempting another combo._

**xxx**

Riku hit with every Dark attack he had, unaware of how little it was doing him. All he saw was that Sora was getting hurt, and he assumed it was Ansem that was taking the damage. He didn't know that Ansem had pulled back on his control, letting Sora be slightly in charge for this battle. But only just enough for him to take the damage instead.

Riku quickly blocked Sora's blade and counterattacked as Sora reeled back in the shock of being blocked. He pulled a nice combo or so, and then quickly pulled away as Sora lashed out with darkness. He moved in for another attack.

Sora avoided that one, however, and Riku charged up Helm Split. It seemed as if Sora didn't even attempt to avoid the attack. He charged up Dark Firaga, which Sora also didn't avoid. He frowned, a bit skeptical, and rushed forward with his blade. He was blocked, but quickly jumped back before Sora hit him with a counterattack.

Sora did, however, manage to hit him immediately after that, and hit the wound in his side. Riku gasped, stumbling backwards. He bit his lip, holding back the cry of pain. It came out as something more of a moan.

 _Darn you, Ansem,_ he thought, charging up a Dark Aura. He hit Sora every time, causing a lot of damage. He swallowed, wondering how much Sora was actually hurting underneath. That was exactly what he didn't need. To end up accidently killing Sora instead of Ansem.

He stopped with the Dark attacks for a while, and just attacked madly with his blade. Sora actually did seem to avoid most of these, though he did dodge roll right into an attack once. Riku almost laughed at this, but didn't.

Something wasn't right.

**xxx**

_Every time that Riku used a Dark attack, the shadows would restrain him, so he would take the full pain of the blow. It got rather annoying. Sora wasn't about to give up though. He continued fighting, though each time Riku's blade hit he would stumble._

" _This is rather ridiculous," Sora mumbled, as he fell to the ground. He held onto his Keyblade with a firm grip, as the shadows were gaining up on him. They did this every time he fell. Sora quickly got to his feet again, and quickly attacked Ansem. He managed to pull about three combos, and then pulled back before he was hit. He dodged the shadows that were constantly trying to grab hold of him, and attacked Ansem again. However, his Guardian blocked it, and he stumbled back._

" _Submit to the darkness!" Ansem shouted, sending a wave of shadow to overtake Sora. It hit him rather hard, but he fought against it. He wouldn't give in. He wouldn't._

**xxx**

"Behold the power of darkness!" Sora shouted, and Riku shuddered. The phrase didn't sound right, coming from Sora's mouth.

However, he wasn't given much time to think about it, as Sora charged up Dark Aura. He watched in shock for a second. "That's just not right!" he muttered, and then quickly dodged. The dodging didn't do much good though, and he gasped in pain each time as Sora struck. He stumbled back, as he hurt even worse now.

 _I wonder how much Sora's hurting…_ he thought.  _Because that attack hurts!_  He contemplated whether or not he should stop using that attack. He quickly dodged another of Sora's attacks, and then rushed forward with his blade.

"Do you give up yet?" he taunted. He was ignored, and was just attacked again. He blocked the attack, and retaliated. He pulled away after that though, and just stuck to mainly avoiding. He didn't want to attack much anymore. He had this gut feeling that his attacks weren't doing much good.

 _I am so… so sorry Sora…_ he thought, unleashing a massive combo.

Sora's screams of pain were loud. Ansem's voice had almost completely died down. Riku grimaced.

Was this even working?

 _I'm just overreacting,_ he told himself. He charged up Dark Aura again.

**xxx**

_Sora screamed, loud. The shadows didn't even need to restrain him. He was already on the ground, curled up into a ball. The pain was unbearable. It was ridiculous. Ansem was barely even attacking him, his pain only came from Riku's attacks._

" _I hate you…" he whispered. "I hate you Ansem…"_

_One of the shadows grabbed onto his Keyblade, and tried to pull it away from him. He held onto it, trying to pull it out of the shadow's grasp. More shadows reared up, taking his weakness as an advantage. They pulled at his fingers, trying to make him let go._

" _Stop it!" he shouted, but they wouldn't listen to him. "This is my heart, dangit, leave me alone!" he cried, trying to shake the shadows off of him. Every time he knocked them back, they'd return with reinforcements. They attacked his hand restlessly, eagerly trying to wrench the Keyblade from his grasp._

_He pulled one off of him, and tossed it aside. However, he was distracted in doing so, and the rest of the shadows nearly got his Keyblade away from him. He tightened his grip, but it was no use. They finally managed their task, and the Keyblade was torn from his grasp._

" _NO!" he shouted, quickly trying to grab it again. But a horde of shadows attacked him then, holding him down. The shadows with his Keyblade moved farther away, and eventually the Keyblade just disappeared. "No…" he mumbled, as the darkness slowly overcame him and he drifted back into the waves of sleep._


	30. Shattered Worlds

Riku dealt the final blow, and then pulled back. Sora fell to his knees, and then disappeared altogether, leaving his Keyblade behind. "Sora!" Riku shouted, but it was no use.

"Don't bother," Ansem laughed. Riku gasped, turning around. Ansem stood behind him. And it was actually Ansem, this time, Sora was gone. "You're voice can no longer reach him where he is."

Riku swallowed, glaring at Ansem. "What have you done with him?" he asked angrily.

"What have  _I_  done?" Ansem laughed. " _I_  have done nothing. He simply stopped resisting his inevitable fate: to fade back into darkness!"

Riku shook his head. "Sora wouldn't give up that easily," he said. "And neither will I!" he rushed forward, blade drawn. Ansem knocked him back, laughing. His blade flew out of his grasp.

"Fighting it is futile; this world will soon fall into darkness. There is nothing you can do about it!"

Riku groaned, and looked to the side, where Sora's Keyblade lay.  _I wonder…_  he thought, getting an idea. "Nothing, eh?" he asked, lunging forward to grab the Keyblade. He quickly turned, aiming the blade at the Keyhole. A beam of light shot out from the Keyblade and hit the Keyhole, and a bright light filled the room.

"Impossible!" Ansem gasped.

Riku smirked, and Sora's Keyblade vanished from his hand. That was easy. Almost… too easy.

Ansem glared at him, obviously no longer amused. "Insolent brat!" he shouted. Darkness filled the room. Riku turned away, as the tides of darkness beat restlessly at him. Finally, they cleared, and he found himself in another world entirely.

The area was cavernous, the walls purple, towering high above him. The walls were separated into many ledges. Little streams of water ran down from the ceiling, like little waterfalls, running off the ledges to the ground. There was a large hole in the ceiling that stared up at the sky. The sky was completely filled with clouds. But the clouds parted, and a small sliver of moonlight shone down.

The moonbeam fell on Sora's Keyblade, which stood embedded in the ground. The thorns snaked from the blade to the world around it, anchoring it in place. Riku looked at it curiously. A hand suddenly reached out and grabbed the hilt of the blade. Energy shot through the blade, and from the blade to the thorns. The thorns sprung to life, and snaked through the world, taking root in various places.

Riku looked up, and gasped: "Sora!" However, he had a feeling that this wasn't really Sora. He quickly got to his feet.

"Take a look at this place." The words came from Sora's mouth, however, it wasn't Sora's voice. The voice was the clear, sharp, and cold voice of Ansem. "This place reflects the heart of your friend. Look at it, and then tell me, do you see any hope for him?"

Riku grunted, not wanting to answer the question.

Ansem laughed, and then, clearly satisfied that his thorns had done enough, let go of Sora's Keyblade and took a step back. Sora's form flickered, and it changed to that of Ansem's. Riku quickly drew his blade.

"Fight me all you want, it won't do anything to save him," Ansem laughed, summoning his guardian.

**xxx**

Namine opened up a dark corridor, and cautiously stuck a hand into it. She had been checking frequently to see if the path to Hollow Bastion had been unblocked, but had never gotten any good results.

However, she was quite surprised when her hand didn't hit a barrier, as it usually did. She had her arm almost completely through before she decided that there probably  _wasn't_ a barrier, and just stepped through.

She stepped out into the Grand Hall. She didn't really recognize this area of Hollow Bastion, but it was apparently where she needed to be. How did she know that?

Kairi sat in the middle of the room. She just sat there, a hand hovering over her heart, looking shocked.

"Are you okay?" Namine asked, heading over to her. Kairi looked up.

"I-" she began. She seemed to have trouble forming her mouth around the words. "I don't… I…"

"Where's Sora?" Namine tried.

Kairi shook her head.

Namine swallowed. "Have you seen Riku?"

Kairi shook her head again. "No," she managed to say, this time.

"What… happened?"

"I… I don't know… I don't…" She couldn't really remember. She'd been arguing with Sora, here, in this spot before the Keyhole, and she'd been scared because something was  _wrong_ with him, and then… It was a blur. She couldn't piece together anything else.

Namine decided it was best not to ask further. She opened up a dark corridor. "C'mon, let's… let's go."

Kairi nodded, mind still spinning, and followed Namine back to Traverse Town.


	31. Master of Shadows

Riku charged forward, striking hard. He got in a nice combo before pulling back. However, Ansem didn't seem to be taking much damage. He grimaced and tried again, with no better results. And it didn't help that Ansem just stood there, letting him attack, as if he knew it wasn't doing anything. Riku scowled, teeth clenched, and then pulled Helm Split. Ansem's cries of shock and pain were oddly satisfying.

 _I wonder if I'm hurting Sora any though…_ he couldn't help but think, as he dodged a punch from Ansem's Guardian.  _This is going to be a fight to SOMEONE'S death, and it would suck if was his and not mine or Ansem's._ He avoided another of Ansem's attacks, taking great care to also avoid the thorns.  _How would I explain THAT to Kairi?_

He rushed forward for another combo, but was blocked by Ansem's Guardian. He jumped back and shot Dark Firaga. However, that was also blocked.

"Coward!" he called. "You're guardian's doing all the work!"

He was forced to dodge another punch from the guardian, just after saying that. He turned and shot Dark Firaga again, and it thankfully made contact this time, and seemed to do a lot of damage.

"Fool!" Ansem shouted, and charged up Dark Rush. He rushed forward, surrounded in darkness. Riku quickly dodged, dodged, dodged again, and then just when he thought the attack was over, was hit. He groaned, stumbling. "Take this!" Ansem said, and then used the attack again. Riku blocked this one.

Riku quickly charged up Dark Aura, and when that was finished charged it up again.

"How do you like that?" he taunted, finishing the attack off.

Ansem was stunned; however, a bunch of shadows popped up out of the ground just then and launched themselves at him. He quickly disposed of them, rather confused. Of all things to show up…

He ignored the new batch of shadows that popped up, and quickly located Ansem. He leaned back, charging up Dark Firaga. Something grabbed a hold of his arm, causing him to stop. He turned, shocked, wondering what the heck had a hold of him. He was surprised to find that the thorns had suddenly sprung to life. He quickly shook them off his arm and rolled away.

"Great, just what I  _didn't_  need," he muttered. Having a bunch of shadows after him and thorns trying to pull him down while he was fighting probably one of the hardest battles of his life was definitely not fun.

"My strength returns…" Ansem muttered, and his Guardian dove into the ground. It popped up, right under Riku's feet. He only barely managed to avoid it. The Guardian repeated this process, and Riku just kept running, dodging it, the shadows, and the thorns.

"What do you hope to accomplish?" Ansem taunted. Riku shot a glare at him, narrowly avoiding his Guardian.

 _I really… don't… like you,_ Riku thought, as the Guardian struck the ground, sending out a shockwave. He avoided that easily, but was nearly tripped by the thorns. He jumped out of their way, and then set to eliminating some of the shadows before their numbers got to large.

Ansem charged up Dark Rush and hit him from behind, while he wasn't even paying attention. The attack hit him full on, and the damage he suffered was great. He paused after the attack was over, panting, as Dark Mode fell off of him. He took a second to recover, and then quickly rushed forward to attack Ansem again.

Or, he tried to. The thorns had gotten a hold of his leg, and had pulled him back, causing him to fall flat on his face. He groaned, and then quickly turned around and hacked at the thorns until they let go. He staggered to his feet, and then tried again to attack Ansem, succeeding this time.

"Will you just die already?" he asked. Ansem just laughed. Riku scowled, his breath coming hard to him. He was running out of strength. He couldn't keep going much longer. Nevertheless, he rushed forward again, managing to get in a massive combo. Ansem threw up his Guardian suddenly, and Riku hit it instead of him. Riku gasped, stumbling backward. It felt as if he had just hit a brick wall.

He waited for Ansem's Guardian to withdraw, eliminating some shadows. He rushed forward as soon as he could and pulled another combo or two, jumping back quickly before Ansem threw up his Guardian again.

 _Dang, I wish I hadn't fallen out of Dark Mode so soon,_ Riku thought bitterly.  _This is just ridiculous. It's like I'm not even doing anything!_

He scanned the room, hoping that something that he could use as an advantage would come to him. However, there was nothing. "Gah," he muttered, rushing forward and attacking Ansem again. He pulled back, while Ansem was again stunned.

 _"Quick, Riku! The Keyblade!"_  a voice shouted out to him. Sora's voice. Riku hesitated for a moment, slightly confused, and then quickly ran over to Sora's Keyblade. The shadows attacked him restlessly, almost as if they knew what he was doing. He quickly knocked them away. The thorns angrily lashed out at him, trying to pull him back.

He grabbed the blade and tried to pull it free. The thorns that anchored it there were strong though. Shadows jumped onto his arm, trying to pull his hand away from the blade. He tried his best to shake them off, and somehow managed.

Riku frowned, teeth clenched with concentration. The blade wouldn't budge. He groaned, and then started hacking away at the thorns with his own blade until they let go. Finally, they did, and he managed to pull Sora's Keyblade from the ground. A burst of light filled the room, and a scream escaped Ansem's lips.

Riku, however, wasn't paying much attention. He watched Sora's Keyblade in shock, as the thorns around it slowly died and fell away and the cracks slowly mended.

" _Riku! NOW!"_

He snapped back into reality, and then quickly rushed forward, Sora's blade ready. He struck, and Ansem staggered back.

Sora's Keyblade vanished from his hand, and the form of Ansem slowly faded away, leaving a confused Sora standing in the center of the room.

"Sora!" Riku said, smiling slightly.

Sora looked up at him, looking scared, but slightly relieved. "Is he… is he gone?" he asked.

"I think so, yeah," Riku said. It certainly seemed like Ansem was gone. "He probably faded back into darkness."

Sora smiled. "I'm… I'm free," he said, a grin spreading across his face.

A pool of darkness opened up below Sora, and a hand shot out and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"YOU ARE  _MINE_!" Ansem shouted, slowly dragging Sora down. "And you will fade into darkness with me!"

"No!" Sora gasped, trying to fight it. "I won't- I-" He looked at Riku, eyes filled with terror. He knew he wasn't going to be able to escape.

Riku shook his head. He wouldn't let Sora give up that easily!

Sora just smiled, weakly. "Tell Kairi I'm sorry, will you?"

He managed to get that out, and then he was engulfed in darkness. He and Ansem both disappeared.

"No…" Riku muttered. He gasped as there was another flash of light, and he found himself back at Hollow Bastion.


	32. Fragments of Sorrow

"Riku. You did it."

He turned, surprised. He was still slightly shaken from what he had just witnessed. Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie all stood, almost as if they had been waiting for him. Maybe they had. He didn't care. He looked at them, but couldn't really focus. He could still see Sora, in his mind's eye. He couldn't shake the look on Sora's face, as he was being dragged down into darkness. He kept wondering about what Sora had meant to say. He had been running through countless possibilities, but none of them seemed to fit.

"Are you okay?" Aerith asked.

"Huh? Yeah," he said, roughly. "Why are you guys here?"

"We came in Cid's gummi ship, duh," Yuffie replied.

"This was our childhood home," Aerith explained. "We wanted to see it again."

Leon shook his head sadly. "It's in worse shape than I feared. It used to be so peaceful…"

Riku tried to look sympathetic, but probably failed at it. The closest thing he had to a childhood home was Castle Oblivion, and he wouldn't care if that place fell to ruins. However, he was also preoccupied. He still couldn't shake that image of Sora out of his brain.

"Don't worry," Aerith said, as if she could tell he was worried. However, she obviously didn't know what he was worried about. "You defeated Ansem, so all should be restored. Even your islands."

"Cool," Riku muttered, not really thinking about it. He was still worrying about Sora.

"Everyone should return to their homes, too," Yuffie said.

That got his attention. "Really?" he asked. That meant Namine and Kairi and- well… Sora probably wasn't included in that. Sora had been dragged into darkness. He probably wasn't even-

Riku quickly shook his head. He couldn't think stuff like that.

"You should return home, too," Aerith said.

He looked at them, still shaken, still not focusing. "Yeah, right," he managed to say, and slowly opened up a dark corridor behind him. "I'll be going then…"

And he was gone.

**xxx**

His face hit the sand. He groaned. Talk about a rough landing.

 _That's what I get for not focusing,_ he thought, pushing himself up.  _At least I landed in the right world…_

"Riku!"

He smiled slightly, finding Namine running towards him. He rose to his feet, still shaken slightly. It felt good to be back home, but Sora-

"You're okay!" Namine said, happily.

He nodded. He hurt, but he wasn't focusing on it. He wasn't really focusing at all. His mind kept drifting back to Sora.

" _Are_  you okay?" Namine asked, suddenly worried. He nodded again. She frowned.

The sound of footsteps caught his attention. He turned, slightly shocked. It was only Kairi. Thank goodness she was okay! He had been slightly worried, after what Ansem had done to her…

"Riku, where's Sora?" she demanded, as she reached them.

Riku flinched back. His stomach bottomed out.

"Riku! Riku, what happened to him?"

"I- I'm sorry. I don't know where Sora is. I- He…  _I'm sorry._ "

He couldn't say it. It was as if not saying it would change the truth, or something. Namine had a troubled look on her face, and Kairi looked absolutely horror stricken. They knew that it was bad, even without him finishing the explanation.

Riku took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. It kind of worked.

"Listen, I'll find him," he told them. "I'll find him and I'll bring him home safely. I promise, okay?"

"Riku," Namine said. "You don't have to-" She paused, noting the look on Riku's face. Just the look on his face, and she knew. He wasn't just doing this for Kairi.

"I'll be back.  _Soon._ " Riku opened up a dark corridor. "I'll find Sora, and I'll be back. It won't take me long. I'll find him, alright? I'll find him!"

He stepped through.

**xxx**

Sora wasn't quite sure  _where_  he was. He couldn't exactly feel anything around him. He couldn't feel at all, to be honest. He wiggled his fingers, or attempted to, but felt no movement. He opened his eyes. Darkness surrounded him. He couldn't see a thing.

"Close your eyes," a voice told him. "Surrender to the darkness."

He was about to do it, too, but then something occurred to him. He quickly opened his eyes. "Wait a minute!" he shouted to the darkness. "I gotta see Kairi again!"

"Surrender yourself," the voice repeated. "Become the darkness."

"But I…" he started to say, but lost control of his body again and slowly went back to drifting.

"Stay asleep," the voice whispered. "Surrender yourself to the darkness and sleep. Here, sleep is eternal…"

Sora closed his eyes again, about ready to give up. Kairi crossed his mind again, and he cringed. What was he going to say to her, if he ever got out of here? After all that he had done. It was painful, all those memories… She had only been trying to help, and he had only pushed her away.

She probably hated him, by now.

If only he had never given into the darkness in the first place…

"Maybe I should just surrender," he mumbled. "And fade into the darkness. Then I won't have to worry about it."

His heart ached though, at the thought of not seeing her again.

"Kairi…" he whispered. "I'm sorry…"


End file.
